Front-end users are more likely to engage with content if it has an attractive image associated with it. For example, according to a study conducted by Research Media Lab, images shown with posts can boost reader engagement by up to 35%.
For many sites, to ensure that all (or most) of their content has a preview image associated with it, they will upload default images or teaser images to ensure each post that doesn’t already have an image. But, this leads to extra work, and a lot of duplicated content in the CMS.
New Default Section Image feature
To alleviate this, we are launching today a new feature called Default Section Images. In the Section tags area (Settings -> Sections -> Default Images) there is now the capability to upload a default image (or several) for each section. The image must be uploaded to the Media Library first (because it is not an asset), then it can be added to the Section tag area. This will be used in the situation where there is no preview image for that article.
This default image acts a bit like a teaser image in that it will show up on the index page (or any preview card that points to the article) but it does not show up on the article itself. This is because these are often stock images or non-specific images that do not necessarily pertain specifically to the article in question. Showing a large default image on the article details page, for example, could be confusing.
To help you get started, we've created a Starter Pack of example images you can use.
