Since the launch of Devblog, a blogging platform for developers, there have been thousands of posts on Hashnode, and most of them have no cover images. Since this influences how people perceive your posts and the overall feel of your blog, we decided to help you out and show you how to find crisp cover images for free, or generate custom ones online.
Why you should add cover images to your Devblog posts
A cover image will help you grab the attention of others. In general, posts without a cover image generate fewer views than the ones with a simple cover image.
Moreover, the size of the card with a cover image takes up a bit more space than the one with just a title. This goes for all other social networks, but don't worry, Hashnode has your back there. We automatically generate an OG image for sharing on social media, so no worries about that.
Here's the difference in the post size on Hashnode, the first post has a cover image, and the second doesn't.
And here's how a post without a cover image looks like on Twitter
In general, people prefer clicking on posts with cover images, rather than just on titles.
Why you should customize the images before uploading them on Devblog
Editing images is necessary to make sure the size is right.
Upload at least 800 x 420 px or the same ratio size image to make your post look good on social media and on Hashnode. Sizes like 1600 x 840 px or 2400 x1260 will also work nicely.
Moreover, you can combine multiple images/illustrations and add text to your cover to make it as personalized as possible. This will help your blog stand out from the crowd. Check out cool artwork on Tapas Adhikary's blog 😉
Top websites with stock images and illustrations
There are a lot of websites with free stock photos or illustrations where you can choose your cover image from. Here's our modest list of suggestions.
Photos
Illustrations
Image customization tools
To make sure that your cover image has the right size, you can use the following tools to optimize your images (FOR FREE) 👇
Online image editing tools
Image editing tools that require download
Hope you found this post helpful and that you'll find a perfect cover image for your next post in no time!
Feel free to suggest other areas you'd like us to help you out with, and don't forget to recommend Devblog to your dev friends!