Ever been redirected to a website when clicking an image on Google search? Or perhaps you clicked away from a site as it looked unappealing without any graphics? Images play a huge role in any industry. Website and Search Engine Optimization is no different.
As the quote goes, a picture speaks a thousand words. Not only do your pictures help give information, but they also add a visual appeal. We also know that images play a massive role in your SEO and may impact how well you rank. Optimizing your images for SEO can enhance your user experience, leading to increased traffic.
In this blog, we’ll answer your question on how to optimize images for SEO and cover its essentials. We will break it down into simple tips so that you won’t have any difficulty at all.
Tips For Image Optimization
- Choose The Right Image Format
- Compress your Images
- Optimize File Names
- Use Descriptive Alt Text
- Mobile Optimization
- Image Sitemaps
- Image File Structure
- Avoiding Copyright
1. Choose The Right Image Format
Did you know, the file type of the images you upload to your site plays a role in SEO? Choosing the right file format for your images is an important step.
JPEG, PNG, and GIF are the most popular file image formats used on the web. We recommend you use these formats too. Alternatively, you can opt to convert your images to WEBP format. A WEBP format produces high-quality results even though it has a relatively small size. Squoosh is a free-to-use browser tool to convert your images to WEBP.
Recommendations for Format Uses
- JPEGS: Standard pick for most images including blog posts and screenshots. JPEG is a lossy format, where you compromise quality for size. The optimization isn’t all that bad though, your images will still retain quality. Not recommended for photographs or complex images.
- PNGS: Best recommended for logos, icons, and high-quality images. It has a better image quality but with a larger file size.
- GIFS: These are animated images, use where you see fit! GIFS are ideal for adding small, eye-catching elements to your website. But have a larger size.
It is also to be noted that the higher the quality of your pictures, the more size it will take. The more size it has, the longer your site will take to load. Images are essential but there will be some balancing for you to do. More on size compression in a bit.
2. Compress your Images
If your website takes just a second extra to load, it might lead to a higher bounce rate. In this world where attention spans are getting shorter, it’s essential to have your content load on the go. This is why, things like image sizes add up.
An easy fix to help your site load faster is to compress your images. Large images tend to slow down your website and are frustrating for your visitors. It isn’t all that difficult either. There are many free-to-use tools all over the internet you can use for image compression.
Some good image compression tools you can use are TinyPNG and Compressor.io or even do it through Photoshop.
Make sure to check your page speed through Google PageSpeed Insights.
It’s important to find the right balance between reducing your file size and maintaining image quality. There are people who recommend uploading image sizes less than 200KB. But don’t go overboard with image compression! No use of a low file size image if it looks like a bank camera footage. Make sure you are using the correct file format as we discussed beforehand.
Read more on Website Load Speed Tips
3. Optimize File Names
Might be a big bummer for some of you but unfortunately no. You just cannot name your image Sasdd or some random mumbo jumbo and call it a day.
Be descriptive with your file names. Like said before, don’t put meaningless/ generic names to your images like “123” or “img1” or something like that. Use names that accurately reflect what your image is about.
The above example shows what your typical file name should be. Instead of something random, we’ll fill it with something a SE crawler can read and process.
If you want to space your texts, use hyphens instead of underscores. Helps search engines read file names more easily. Incorporate relevant keywords into your image file names. This can help improve your website’s SEO and make it easier for search engines to understand the content of your images. Don’t overdo it either. Just make sure the keyword is there with relevant context.
4. Use Descriptive Alt Text
The following tip is basically the same as the previous tip but leans a bit more toward the technical side. An Alt text is a descriptive text added to an image in HTML code. Its purpose is to help visually impaired users or search engines to understand what your image is about. Users have a higher word count they can play with but still should try to keep it simple. Keep your alt texts concise like around 125 characters.
It’s now a known fact that clarity and conciseness is the key to your SEO. So, try to be accurate with your alt description and don’t use it as an opportunity to stuff keywords.
5. Responsive Image
If you are acquainted with SEO well enough, you know the role of responsive websites. Mobile users make up a bulk of your incoming site traffic and a responsive website ensures your mobile viewers are having a quality time.
Similar to responsive websites, responsive images play a crucial aspect in mobile optimization. Image optimization adjusts the resolution of your image according to the user’s device specifications. Be it a tablet, iPad, or phone. This feature is important for mobile users as they expect fast and seamless access to websites (that’s the entire thing about mobile phones, it gotta be fast). Responsive images ensure a positive user experience.
In addition to improving user experience, responsive images can also help to reduce page load times. Large images can slow down page load times, which can have a negative impact on SEO. By optimizing your images for mobile devices with responsive design, you can ensure that the images on your website are optimized for different screen sizes and resolutions, while also reducing their size and overall impact on page load times.
6. Image Sitemaps
Image sitemap files provide search engines with information about the images on your website; location, caption, alt texts, and other metadata. To keep it simple, take image sitemaps as a directory where you can store and upload new images.
Image sitemaps sort of work like alt descriptions. It provides search engines with more information about your images than you might be able to do on the page itself. If your image doesn’t have much text-based content, you can use sitemaps to describe what your content is for.
It isn’t strictly necessary but considered a good practice.
Search Engines like Google often include images in their search results. You can take full advantage of this fact by providing your image sitemaps to search engines. This way, your chances of being shown in a relevant search query are very high.
Sitemap creation isn’t difficult either. There are plenty of tools like Yoast SEO or Google Search Console that can generate an image sitemap for you. Submit your image sitemaps to the respective search engine so it can crawl and index your images properly.
7. Image File Structure
The image structure is the organization and presentation of images on your website. This can be done both visually and through codes. Image structure helps search engines understand and interpret your images accurately.
Google stated that its search engine uses the file path and names to rank your images. You read it correctly, yes NAMES. So be it hotdog or not, you sure will be using the correct file structure to rank your images higher. Structure your images into sub-folders and categories to optimize your image structure better.
8. Avoid Copyright
Copyright is an issue most newbie bloggers or content creators often overlook. Using other people’s creations/images without their consent can lead to legal consequences. Many times, using copyrighted images will end with a fine or severe warning.
How to avoid copyright? Here are quick tips on how to get access to copyright-free images.
Go to the Google search bar and search for the picture you would like. Just below the search icon, you will see a tools option. Click on that and a new section pops up called “usage rights”. Make sure you select the creative commons license.
Get the picture you want from that section. They’re completely free to use.
Alternatively, if you are looking for sites that offer free stock images and videos:
These two are just one of many sites that offer free-to-use stock images without any copyright issues. While you may not find very niche images, it still has millions to offer.
Make sure you use non-copyrighted images or ask for prior permission from the owner before use. Additionally, if you want another safe layer of security, get a written or signed proof of ownership permission lest any problems in the future.
Images play their own role in your SEO. Make sure you are following the best practices to have an edge over your competitors. We gave our insights and tips on the topic and hopefully, you know more about how to optimize images for SEO.
Frequently Asked Questions
A: Image optimization helps improve your rankings in SERPs through Google’s algorithms. Properly optimized images improve user experience through alt texts, responsive images, and faster page load times.
A: The file format you use depends on the type of images you intend to upload. In most cases, you will be using a JPEG format as it’ll take less space. We don’t recommend you use GIFs often.
A: Take alt text as a description of your image that helps search engines and visually impaired people understand your image. Optimize your alt text by using keyword-rich phrases (no don’t overdo it) and properly describing what your image is about.
A: Creating an image sitemap can help search engines discover and index your images more easily, which can improve their visibility in search results. While it's not strictly necessary, creating an image sitemap is a best practice for SEO and can help your website's overall search engine ranking.
