If you are using images in your posts, and if you are using them in your archives and widgets, then it’s important to set a ‘featured image’ when you create your posts.
If there is only one image in your post’s media library, then WordPress will use it as the featured image. However, if there are 2 or more, WordPress will assume the first one you uploaded is the featured image. Often, this does not work out so well.
Have a look at this screen shot (modified) from Life As A Human. The arrows point to different content sections, all which are showing the featured images for various posts.
You’ll notice that some of the images have a different aspect ratio than others. I covered a part of this in How To Set The WordPress Media Settings but will explain more in a follow-up article very soon.
For now, let’s focus on the “Our Latest Article” section which is using thumbnails generated by WordPress as described in How To Set The WordPress Media Settings.
To set the featured image:
Click Add Media
Now click on:
- Set Featured Image
- Select Uploaded To This Post and you will see all the images in the post’s media library.
- Select the image you want to use as the featured image
- Click the blue Set Featured Image button (lower right).
You’re done!
Now, when that post shows up in your archives or any content area, this will be the thumbnail that WordPress uses to showcase your post.
In the next article on this topic, I will cover the different image sizes / aspect ratios mentioned above.
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