Introduction
There are more than just articles and blogs when looking for results online. MozCast shows that over 36% of the searches include images. Furthermore, not to mention the Google Image search done by the users.
If you see the total amount of results that are related to images, you will find that that’s an enormous amount of potential website engagement. However, most online content creators are unaware of this fact. Perhaps this is why they hardly spend any time optimizing their images.
Google Algorithm is getting smarter every day and is shifting its focus equally on images. Fortunately, optimizing your images for search doesn’t require countless hours. Just by focusing on the size, description, and speed of the image loading, you can optimize your images for the best results.
What Is Image SEO?
When people are working on an SEO strategy, they mostly take the easy way out – loading time optimization, website design, and ALT texts of the images. Amidst all these, they forget that Image SEO is the real science that goes beyond.
Image SEO is what decides how your images rank on the search engine. It also affects the organic result as a whole. Therefore, optimizing your images will positively impact your page ranking.
Why Is Optimizing Your Images For Search Engines Important?
It has been proven that images play an important role in connecting users and products. If your website loads in more than 3 seconds, your visitors will exit your website, which will drastically increase the bounce rate of the website.
While this is not it, below, we have listed the importance of image optimization.
1. Improve Loading Speed
Page load speed is the amount of time taken by the website to open for the visitors. The page loading speed depends on many factors, including design, images, plugins, and webpages. According to the experts, a website with a page speed of 3 seconds performs better than other websites with a longer page speed. Image SEO helps you optimize your images and increase the overall loading speed of the website.
2. Improve SEO Ranking
It was in 2010 that it became clear that page loading speed is a ranking factor. Nobody loves a slow website. That being said, Google and other search engine took this very seriously. Google rolled out updates that focus on filtering websites with slow speed and pushing them behind in the ranking marathon. With image SEO, you can ensure your website is SEO optimized, fast, and reliable.
3. Boost Conversion
As your search engine performance improves, you can capture more audiences to your website and possibly get more conversions for your business. You must understand that page loading speed helps you with SEO performance, and with SEO performance, you get to your audiences before your competitors.
4. Enhance User Engagement
Trust us – a happy customer is not a myth. If you are able to offer what your customers are looking for, you will make them happy. Then, all you need to do is optimize your images for the perfect SEO to boost your user experience.
Having high-quality images on your website that are loading faster, it will help you engage with your audiences.
How To Optimize Images For SEO?
Once you have found the right image to use, the next step is to optimize the images for SEO. So, before you add any images, there are a number of things you can do.
1. Choose The Right File Name
Image SEO starts with the File Name. You want your audiences and search to know about the images even without looking at the images. This is where a proper file name helps.
For instance, if you are writing an article about the best laptop for students to do their academic projects, instead of using an image with the name DSC0040.jpg, use a proper file like Asus 14s. Yes, the name Asus 14s is the name of the laptop that is in the image.
2. Choose The Right Format
The format is important if you want your images to follow proper SEO. There is no right or wrong when it comes to choosing the right format for your image. It all comes down to your needs.
For instance, choose –
- JPEG for larger photos.
- PNG to preserve background images.
- WebP to produce higher quality with smaller file size.
- SVG for icons and logos.
If you know why you need images on your website, you can select the right format for the best results.
3. Use Responsive Images
This one is important for your SEO. your images need to be responsive to ensure it opens on every device. If you are using WordPress, it’s done for you automatically.
You can check whether or not your image is responsive or not by going to the back end and looking for the code srcset attribute. It makes the image flexible as per screen size to fit any screen.
4. Reduce The File Size
The next step in image SEO should be to scale up your image and lower the file size. The lower the file size is, the better will be your loading speed.
Of course, you just cannot export images from the drive and use it. You need a third-party tool that optimizes the image size without hampering its quality.
Once you have optimized the image, you can test it out on Google Page Speed Insight to see how it performs.
The Takeaway
You might not be aware that a major part of website traffic comes from image search results. People who are searching on search engines don’t always look for articles, blogs, and other forms of web content. Instead, they also look for images. This is when your image becomes a prime prospect to attract traffic to your website.
Furthermore, according to experts, image SEO has become an important factor for your overall SEO performance. To rank well in search engines, you need to consider image, size, speed, format, and related data to the image as ALT text.
If done correctly, image optimization can lead to improved search rankings and boosted revenue for your business.
OTS News on Social Media