If you improve the SEO for your website’s images, you will help search engines better understand your site and content. In addition, your website’s images will come up more often in image search results, which will help generate interest in your products and services.
There are many benefits to image optimization, such as a better user experience, faster page load times, and more ranking opportunities. It is also becoming increasingly more important.
Image optimization is important for many reasons. 1. Images can be resized and compressed to reduce file size without affecting quality. 2. Optimized images load faster, which can improve website speed and performance. 3. Smaller image file sizes can also help reduce website bandwidth usage. 4. Images can be converted to file formats that take up less space, such as JPEG 2000 or WebP.
Why is SEO for images important?
Search engines use a complex process to analyze and rank web content. Good SEO ensures your audience can quickly find you online. It is also one of the best ways to earn a top spot in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Image SEO is improving your position in search engine results by making your images more visible. This, in turn, attracts more visitors to your site.
Here are important image optimization tips you need to know:
1. Know your keywords and keyword phrases
Make sure to research just as you would for the rest of your website. You should know the key search terms people use to find you online. If you know the keywords you rank for, that’s great. You will already know which keywords to use when doing SEO for your images.
If you aren’t confident in your keywords, it’s time to investigate. Utilize Google’s Keyword Planner or another keyword research tool to discern what terms people are looking for that are related to your business. After you have a good grasp of the best keywords, you can start using SEO for images effectively.
2. Follow best practices for naming images for SEO
We understand that it would be easier to just label images with the standard title your camera gives them, or something basic like “image2.jpg.” However, this is not ideal because search crawlers analyze image filenames. Therefore, your image filenames should be a accurate description of their content.
3. Include images in sitemaps
If you want your images to show up on search engines, you need to provide them with as much information as possible about what the images contain. Google recommends creating image sitemaps as a best practice for publishing images.
If your images are included in a sitemap, it’s more likely that search engines will find and index them. This can lead to more people finding and visiting your site.
If you are using WordPress, the Yoast and RankMath plugins offer a sitemap solution.
Make sure to follow the Abode Stock image guidelines for online publishing if you want your images to perform well in search engines.
4. Optimize image alt tags
Search engines cannot interpret images in the same way that humans can. They use something called alt tags to identify what is in the image. All images on your website should have an alt tag that describes the image, and many of them should include relevant keywords.
The purpose of an Alt tag is to provide a text alternative for an image on a web page, if the browser is not able to properly render the image. The Alt tag is similar to the title attribute, in that it is used to describe the contents of an image file.
Investing time in creating strong alt tags for images on your website can help improve your website’s SEO. This is because if an image fails to load, users will still be able to see what it was supposed to be.
If you cannot see an image, the ADA requires that there is alt text available that describes what is in the image. This way, everyone can understand what is happening in the photo.
5. Incorporate title tags
In addition to alt tags, you should also include title tags to optimize your images for SEO. Title tags will not take the place of images that can’t be displayed, but they pop up when users move their mouse over an image.
This means that your title tags don’t have to be full of keywords. You can write them like photo captions, or use them to explain more about the topic.
6. Write body content
Alt tags are important, but they don’t give search engines much information. Write body content to give them more context.
When creating a website, it is important to keep in mind that the images and text should be closely related. If the site consists of photos of interior design, but the text is about water skiing, this will only confuse search engines.
7. Don’t hide your text with images
Hiding text is a black-hat SEO tactic and will result in penalties. It is better to use an image for your H1 (first page heading) instead of covering up the header text. Although the intentions may be good, this should be avoided.
If you want to use an image for your header, be sure to label it appropriately to get the SEO benefits of optimized images.
8. Consider different image formats
You may not think that file types are interchangeable when it comes to images however it actually matters to visitors. If you have a lot of images on your website, you will need to compress some of them to ensure the site loads quickly. This might require changing to a smaller file type.
JPEG files are usually the best option for reducing file size without compromising quality. If JPEG is not an option, PNG is another good option for small file size.
9. Compress images
Load time is one of many factors that affect a website’s search engine ranking. If a website’s images are large, it will take longer to load, which could lower the website’s ranking. If pages take too long to load, users might get frustrated and leave before seeing the content, which could further lower the ranking.
If you want to use images to make your website look nicer, that’s fine, but be careful not to use too many, or use images that are too big. If you do, it will make your website slower to load, which could result in fewer people converting to customers/users, or could negatively affect your page ranking.
Users of search engines will view your web page in a negative light if it is full of poorly written content.
On average, images make up 21% of the total weight of a webpage, according to HTTP Archive.
It is important to find a plugin that compresses images externally on servers in order to reduce the load on your own site.
You can improve the speed of your website by using an image CDN that automatically optimizes images for the user’s device. Two options you can try are Cloudinary and Imgix.
Increasingly.com improved website speed by compressing images, resulting in a 33%/2 second increase.
10. Share your photos
The better your chances of ranking well are if you have more links from high authority sites. Therefore, it is beneficial for you to have as many people see and potentially link to your content.
Images are more visually appealing to viewers than large blocks of text and are therefore more likely to be shared. Share images on social media platforms and include links in newsletters and other email correspondence. Add social sharing buttons to your website and blog to encourage visitors to share your content.
11. Choose the right format
Figuring out which image file type to use can feel like when you first went to Taco Bell and had to choose what to order. But before you can start adding images to your website, you want to make sure you choose the best file type.
PNG and JPEG are two of the most common image formats used on the internet.
- PNG: Produces better quality images, but comes with a larger file size.
- JPEG: You may lose image quality, but you can adjust the quality level to find a good balance.
- WebP: Choose lossless or lossy compression using this, the only image format supported by both Chrome and Firefox.
12. Create unique images
If you want your images to make an impact and improve your SEO, you need to use original, high-quality images.
If you have more original pictures, the user will have a better experience, and you will be more likely to rank higher on relevant searches.
This means that if you want your images to be seen, you should make them large.
According to Google’s Advanced SEO resource, images should be at least 1200 pixels wide and enabled by the max-image-preview: large setting, or by using AMP.
13. Beware of Copyright
Choose your image files carefully to avoid copyright conflicts.
If you use an image from Getty, Shutterstock, Deposit Files, or any other stock photo provider without having a license to do so, you could be sued for a lot of money.
You could be issued a notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) if you have violated any copyright issues. If the owner of a piece of content sees their content on your website, they can issue a DMCA Takedown, which you must comply with.
14. Customize image file names
It’s important to create descriptive, keyword-rich file names when you’re working on SEO. It would be like getting a burrito with nothing in it if you didn’t customize your image file name, and that would just plain suck.
If you want Google and other search engines to be able to understand the subject matter of your images and improve your SEO value, you should change the file name from the default.
You will need to put in some effort, depending on how large your media library is, to change the default image name, but it is always a good idea.
15. Think about the image file structure
Google’s update to its Image Guidelines reveals that the company uses the file path and file name when ranking images.
The filepath and filename are both actual ranking factors.
16. Optimize your page title and description
Google uses your page title and description when you do an image search.
Meta data, header tags, copy on the page, and structured data all affect the way Google ranks your images.
17. Define your dimensions
If you want your images to look good on AMP or PWAs, you need to make sure the dimensions are correct in the source code.
If you’re not using width or height, it’s best to still define them for a better user experience. It also allows browsers to size the image before CSS is loaded, which prevents the page from jumping when it loads.
CLS issues can interfere with your Core Web Vitals optimization if image dimension attributes are not set.
18. Add structured data
If you add structured data to your content types, Google and other search engines will be able to deliver better visual results. Essentially, this means that Google could serve your images as a rich result.
If you use schema markup on a product page and label the image as a product, Google can use this information to provide the right image.
19. Make your images mobile-friendly
Mobile SEO can go either way. A high bounce rate and low conversions are indicative of a poor mobile SEO strategy, while a good strategy can result in more ranking power and better user engagement.
The attribute value should be formatted with a different part on each line as demonstrated in this example from their resource. It is important to format this with a different part of the attribute value on each line, as demonstrated in this example from their resource:
elva-fairy-800w.jpg 800w”
sizes=”(max-width: 600px) 480px,
800px”
src=”elva-fairy-800w.jpg”
alt=”Elva dressed as a fairy”>
Start optimizing your images for SEO
SEO for images is a process that can improve the visibility of online content. It can be time-consuming, but the potential benefits make the effort worth it. By implementing SEO techniques for images, you can reach a wider audience and build a stronger reputation online.
Making sure your images are optimized is not a laughing matter. With the progress of voice search technology, media is increasingly important and your whole website will improve by taking the measures mentioned above.