Conventional wisdom holds that the optimal WordPress featured image size is 1200 x 675, a 16:9 (landscape) aspect ratio.
However, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode may prompt a revised approach to featured image sizing.
The Shift in Featured Image Presentation
You may have noticed that in Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, 1:1 aspect ratio image thumbnails are displayed in the sources section on the right and in the hover popup. Only video thumbnails display as 16:9.
Traditional wide-angle featured images are cropped on the sides to fit the 1:1 aspect ratio of the thumbnail.
Ahrefs estimates that AI Overviews reduce click rates by 58% compared to the traditional ‘ten blue links’ search results. But there are still clicks to be had.
To enhance ‘click appeal,’ consider a 1:1 aspect ratio image with descriptive text. Make the image size at least 1200 x 1200 px.
If you convert a 1200 x 1200 px PNG image to WebP using a site like TinyPNG, you’ll compress the image by over 90%.
But it goes beyond click appeal.
When content creators are researching sources, some of which they may link to, an optimized thumbnail may catch their attention.
In other words, a more visually appealing thumbnail may help you organically acquire backlinks.
In our testing, we updated the featured image on an older article and subsequently organically acquired a backlink from a domain with a 96 Domain Rating. Coincidence?
What About Non-WordPress Sites?
If your website is not based on WordPress, you can use structured data to specify the primaryImageOfPage.
The primaryImageOfPage is a Schema.org property used in structured data to indicate which image is the main, featured, or representative image for a specific webpage. It corresponds to the WordPress featured image.
Here is an example script. Note that this is barebones structured data, and other information, such as authorship, could be added.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "Webpage",
"name": "A Great Post | Company Name",
"description": "An excellent description of this great post.",
"url": "https://www.company.com/great-post",
"primaryImageOfPage": {
"@type": "ImageObject",
"url": "https://www.company.com/great-image.webp",
"width": 1500,
"height": 1500,
"caption": "Great Post"
}
}
</script>Will optimizing your featured images for AI Mode and AI Overviews result in more clicks? Will it result in more quality backlinks?
This is something you’ll only be able to find out through experimentation and measurement.
