Image Optimization : How to Rank Higher with Images
SEO is a vast field that outstands the traditional methods like optimizing the content.
With the increase in SEO strategies and dominance of visual affects on the web, it is now more important than ever to optimize videos and photos. The SEO technique of image optimization has the power of giving your website an additional chance to be found by image search on search engines like Google. This can prove as effective as attracting visitors to your site using content marketing.
Images are everywhere on a website. Whether you’re running a blog or a business website, you will be required to add catchy and blending graphics like images and videos. Optimizing these factors can shoot your website to one of the highest ranks in no time.
How can you do proper image optimization? What factors matter the most in image optimization? These questions might be boggling your mind. Let’s find out the answers.
Image Name - Optimize on Page to Discover Content in Context
Image name is the primary factor with which your image gets found on the web. It helps the search engines to discover your image and link it to your website. This is the place where keywords play an important role. For example, if you’re adding an image to your home construction website with file name, ‘DSC_1185.png,’ the whole purpose of image optimization is defeated. Instead rename the file with an appropriate title like, ‘home_construction.png.’
Image Size – Optimizes the Website for Mobile Devices
Up till now you might have not considered about image sizes impacting your SEO, let’s think again! The size of the image tends to have a huge impact on your overall site speed. The heavier images make the site slow down, especially on mobile devices. However, high-resolution images look good and catch the visitor’s eye. Finding the right balance between these factors is crucial.
Here are the most common file types you can pick:
GIF - GIF are the animated images that are larger in size and may or may not result in image quality loss. Although, it can reduce color details.
JPEG - You can compress this file type to up to 10 times and more in comparison to other formats. This also means that you will loose on quality and that’s a decision you have to make.
PNG - It offers great combination of compression ratio and image quality. It is usually one of the top choices for image optimization
Alt Attributes –Text Alternatives for Failed Image Loading
If a user accesses your site with any device and fails to load the image, a text will appear on the screen known as Alt Attribute. This also helps the web crawlers to ‘see’ the image with their virtual ‘eyes’. This is a great place to add keywords to your images, but keyword stuffing should be avoided! You can provide a file name to your image that also includes appropriate keywords.
Alt Text –Text that Depicts Image
This is a field in the image optimization section that helps the search engines understand not only the name of the image, but also the topic of the surrounding text. It should contain at least one focus keyword and the text should be clear and descriptive. The recommended length of an alt text for image is from 80 to 150 characters. However, it is advised not to sacrifice necessary details just for the sake of length.
Title Text – Name of the Image
This is in simple words, the name of the image. It serves a simple purpose of naming the image. If your file name is already appropriate before uploading, the image with automatically pick the same name as title text.
Page URL and Domain Authority – Relevancy is Important
If your site’s URL matches the description of the images added to the site, then the chances of a successful SEO increases automatically. The page URL also affects the page’s domain authority, which directly affects the image’s performance on the search engine results. In short, if your website already has a better domain authority, your images will perform better.
Surrounding Image Content – Quality and Keywords
Images are usually uploaded within the content, which is a great SEO practice. The relevancy of the content and its quality with the image can also make a difference in its ranking. The text that directly surrounds the image should consist of introductory sentences that eventually lead to the image. Search engines use this to understand the image and rank it better on the search results.
Stock Photography – Generic Alert!
As confirmed by Google’s Matt Cutts back in 2013, stock photography doesn’t harm your SEO. However, there is a different side to this story. Most stock images are generic and almost every other website based on your theme will use them. This will create a generic vibe about your site and you may fail to stand out from the crowd. Google also doesn’t want to rank the same images with different title tags on the search results. Using original photographs might not affect your SEO, but it will surely have a huge impact on your overall website performance.
Image Link-Building – Higher Value for High Engagement
If more and more people link to your image, the chances of it being found in search engines increases. Once your image is found, its popularity will further increase. Embeds and shares on other pages like social media also adds to its optimization.
Grasp the swelling prominence of this new opportunity, include it in your SEO Strategy and rank your website higher via simple image optimization. Get noticed by search engines and enhance the chances of ranking higher with this simple yet effective SEO technique.
