When you share a webpage on social media, it usually has an image attached to it. I have always called this the splash image. The still image that you upload to be the cover image of a YouTube video is called a splash screen. The idea is that it should make a big splash.
The splash image is usually the featured image of the post or page, unless you override it with your SEO settings.
The Site SEO plugin that I use has the option to add a different image for sharing on social media. If you share one of the pages of this website on social media, it will load the splash image in the social media post. Having a splash image will boost your SEO ranking.
Featured images
According to Imagely:
A featured image (sometimes called a “post thumbnail”) is the main visual representation of your post or page in WordPress. It’s the image that appears prominently at the top of your content, in post archives, and when your content is.
Think of featured images as the book cover for your content. They create a first impression and visually communicate what your post is about before visitors read a single word.
So it is important that your splash image creates curiosity about the content you’re trying to get people to click through to.
I prefer not to use AI for these images, as I think that AI-generated images have a horrible plastic appearance, and are often rather depressing.
I get some of my images from Canva (where I have a pro account) and some from Pixabay (which has a filter for removing AI-generated images from search results).
Let us take the strain
I have 25 years’ experience in web development, so these things come naturally to me – but if you don’t want to learn them and spend hours tweaking your website’s settings, then buying one of our web development packages is an excellent investment.