Start Optimising Your Images For Better, Targeted SEO

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It is an undeniable fact that images can enrich the websites content or blog post. Images can also make a site look more appealing and send the message on a better, clearer direction.

That said, image optimisation can help your site attract more targeted consumers while claiming valuable place in the Google Images search results. If you spend more time to fulfill the image with related keywords and in turn use pictures that directly relate to the keywords in your articles, you are going to see more search traffic than sites that fail to do so.

Here are three things to keep in mind when it comes to image optimisation:

  • Reduce and scale the image for optimal loading speed
  • Rename the image with a descriptive file name
  • Take advantage of Alt Text and image titles

Customising The Images

After you’ve either taken your own or found your images from an online image source (e.g. iStock, Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, etc.), you’ll want to choose appropriate names for the images. For example, if you have a picture of a Mount Everest, you should not keep the picture named all letters and numbers (the default for most stock-photo services is a naming convention, like: shutterstock_938731). Instead, channge the name into something relevant to the subject, so the search engine will be able to identify it without actually seeing it. In above example, your image should be named something like mount-everest-in-july.jpg.

The image now needs to be scaled and the file size reduced. To cut down on load times you’ll need to scale down the pixel size of your image. Even when you’re showing an image at 350×250 pixels if the original size is larger than the displayed dimensions the whole image will have to load, cutting down on the speed of your website. A slow website can be a ranking and conversion killer. Scale the image down to the actual size you’re going to display it on you post. It should be noted that while some CMSs will automatically scale the image down to the appropriate-viewing size, the photo should still be resized or it could slow down the page.

Aside from the scale of your image, you also need to reduce the file size. There’s a selection of online sites like JPEGMini or ImageOptim that can assist you in shrinking down the file size of your image. Other sites like GTmetrix will tell you whether the image is properly optimised or not.

Seeing the “Big Picture”

The text that accompanies your image also greatly affects how well it is optimised for website visibility. Captions, titles and alt text will help with the optimisation of the page, as well as a viewer’s ability to scan the article. Alt text is an important element of your website’s functionality, in the case that an image cannot be displayed. The alt text should include keywords that relate the article and picture together. There should be information about the subject of the image, without doing the infamous “keyword stuffing” method or using too many keywords in the alt text. Using specific and relevant keywords in this text field will boost your SEO and help a search engine’s indexing of the articles on your website.

A tool tip is what you see when you hover your mouse over an image. While this text is useful, it may not be the best place to provide critical information. It is nice to have information filling this spot for your image, but titles are not used for image SEO. It is a way to describe the image without worrying about using SEO keywords or pertinent information. Even though the SEO value is low for this area, you should take advantage of the tool tips to provide useful information or clarification about your image or what happens when one clicks the image.

Captions give you another area for optimising your images and adding value to the end users. Not only do they aid in scanning articles, the most popular way viewers read Internet articles, but they also hold more real estate for SEO keywords. Considering the function of your pictures and what purpose they serve within the article can help you come up with a descriptive caption that is going to give insight to the article as well as benefit the website’s SEO. Not every image requires a caption but if you think including information will be beneficial to the visitor as well as SEO for your page, you’ll want to write a caption.

Consider Making Images Sitemaps

A sitemap is a file that allows search engines like Google to crawl, understand and index the content on your site. Image sitemaps display image metadata information to Google in a format they can easily understand, dramatically increasing the likelihood that they will be indexed. As a basic SEO step, your website should have a sitemap and you should submit it to Google via the Google Search Console.