Have you ever thought about why your images don’t appear on top of Google searches?
If the images you design for your web or social media don’t make it to the top, they will not get the deserving audience. So, how can you avoid this from happening?
The answer is “Image Optimisation”.
It won’t only help your images cover greater reach (through Image SEO), but it also includes improving the load time of your website.
Image optimisation will not only push up your images in the Google search; it will also help your website stay there.
Let’s talk about the most effective and essential tips for the optimisation of your images.
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What Is Image Optimisation?
Image optimisation is the process through which search engines can easily read and find your images. In simple words, it enhances the visibility and rankings of your images on search engines.
Image optimisation works on elements like size, type, load time, usage, alt text, etc. When it comes to on-page SEO, image optimisation is often overlooked, even though it’s quite important.
Image optimisation enhances your page's ability to gain links and drive valuable organic traffic.Click To TweetWhat Can Image Optimisation Do?
- Reduce the bounce rate of the website and improve site retention.
- Improve page loading speed.
- Improve keyword prominence.
- Help in reverse image search.
Now we know the relationship between the images and SEO and how it implicates the rankings in the Google Image Search world.
While there are various places to find free high-quality images for your site, you must avoid using images from google as you can get penalised.
In this post, I’ll give you 5 Tips so you can perfectly optimise your images for SEO
Let’s dive right in:
1. Customise the Image File Names
Quite often, we take screenshots of numerous photos and usually keep the default file names that are assigned to these images.
But, in the world of SEO, relevant keywords play a significant role in helping your web page in search engine ranking.
Descriptive, elaborated, and keyword-rich image file names are crucial. You can’t get anything out of a randomly-named image file.
How does it work?
The particular image file name triggers Google and other search engine crawlers towards the base subject of the image.
For example:
Suppose, you took a photograph of a Brown Gucci bag.
You could use the random name your camera assigned to it such as MAXIMAGE10.jpg
However, it’s important to name the file properly, such as: Brown-Gucci-Shoulder-Bag.jpg.
Think as per the customer’s perspective; how they would search your products. What naming pattern would they follow?
In the example above, the search terms can be:
- Latest-Brown-Gucci-Bag
- Brown-Gucci-Shoulder-Bag
- Leather-Gucci-Bag
What should you omit?
Avoid using words like (a the, in, of, etc.)
Also, avoid separating the keywords by underscores (e.g., IMG_458.jpg would become Brooklyn-bridge.jpg).
For effective results, look at your website analytics to see what keyword patterns are in demand. Determine common naming patterns and apply them to your image file naming process.
Not only does it improve your on-page SEO, but it also helps your pages and images rank higher on search engine results.
2. Use Descriptive Alt Text and Captions
Alt text (alternative text) describes an image. It’s what the browser displays to its users when they read the screen.
Not only this, but browsers also display alt text when the image renders.
Alt descriptions are also useful when an image doesn’t load; you get an image box with the alt tag showing in the top left corner.
So, make sure that it should be relevant to the image and content. It’s important to ensure your alt descriptions are SEO friendly.
What Does a well-written alt-tag look like?
<img src=”cat.jpg” alt=”Siamese cat drinking milk”/>
Pro tip!
- When choosing alt text, focus mainly on creating useful keywords with fruitful information.
- The keyword placement should be appropriate, with the context of the page, and doesn’t look fake.
- Don’t stuff it with irrelevant keywords as it only causes spam.
Google has no official format or guidelines to help with the best image sourcing practices. But you may check the interconnected relationship between the captions/tags and Google algorithm.
How?
Google detects the product you are looking for. Incorporating product numbers in alt text is a good step.
Pro Tip!
Check all the images with missing alt text/ caption on your website.
Take a new start by updating them all.
3. Choose the Best File Type
Most images that you can download from free stock photo websites are one of three file types: JPEG, PNG, and GIF. And each one of them has a different compression method.
How does it play a significant role in the page’s performance?
The bigger the image size, the slower will be the page speed.
Page load time is an essential factor for SEO performance on both desktop & mobile.
Which one is the best choice?
- The JPEG image format is the best one for photographs. It has the smallest file size, and image quality is also commendable. It’s best to use when you have lots of colours, shading, and gradient in one frame.
- PNG’s are best for text and transparent line drawings, etc. They also work well for logo designs.
- Moreover, GIFs are best for animations.
4. Resizing Of Images as Per The Website’s Dimensions
Have you ever noticed that there’s some white space on either side of your content
Ever thought, why?
It is because the maximum width of the blog content is 720px. It means your images are never displayed broader than 720px. The increment in pixels only increases the size of the file, nothing else. The browser will itself adjust it to 720px.
But there’s a problem.
The browser still needs to load the full-sized image. As a result, it makes the page-loading speed slow, actually too slow.
So, what’s the solution?
Resize and upload images as per the maximum width you want. Explore the overall design of your website, and do these alterations with the help of CSS.
Be careful while doing responsive design. Both desktop and mobile design should be aligned.
Moreover, with the rise of social media it is essential to link your website with social media.
When it comes to images, make sure that you adjust image sizes according to different social media platforms.
5. Use Image Sitemaps Carefully
A site map is a file where you can list down all the desired web pages of your site for Google. It creates an organisation map of your website’s content.
It is also a core part of SEO because it tells search engines about your site.
What does it include?
The image map comprises of:
- The title
- Description
- URL location
- Caption
- Thumbnail URL
- Raw video file, etc.
Why should You Add a Sitemap to Your Image Content?
Google receives hundreds of queries daily. So, if you own a salon, it might seem like just another shop, but a digital marketer can change the entire game.
You have to create and display content in a way that benefits your website.
You can do it by making your website image-rich and ensuring all images are optimised..
If you have a site having un-optimised images, it won’t be added in an XML image sitemap. It means you are losing an adequate amount of potential audience.
Conclusion
When it comes to images, you can certainly increase your audience by optimising them.
The power and effectiveness of SEO image optimisation shouldn’t be underestimated.
By following these tips, you can enable users to find more products directly from image search itself. Good Luck!
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One Response
Image optimization is important for seo it decreases page load speed and alt tags are used for the ranking purpose. A Good Alt Tags according to your image may help you to rank on google.