Image SEO: How to Optimize Images for Search?

What is Image SEO?

Many assume that SEO only applies to content and website structure, but the concept has grown and search engines are now looking at all features on a webpage and are making sure that they are properly optimised. This expands to content, technical aspect and even the images that you use on your webpage! Image SEO refers to the process of optimising images to best relay what they are and why they are present, helping both users and search engines to relate better to the content on your webpage. There are many different Google image SEO best practices to use to ensure that your images are correctly and effectively optimised. These different practices range from making sure to include effective and meaningful alt text to adding appropriate file dimensions to each image that you add! Image SEO and making sure that you complete the processes involved is becoming more important as search engine crawlers become more advanced and search for intent as opposed to general SEO tactics. Image SEO can greatly improve your chances of ranking highly on search engine results pages and the importance of this SEO tactic should not be underestimated, particularly if you are a website that has many different images. 

Is it Important to Do Image SEO? 

Yes, doing image SEO is incredibly important and optimising this feature on your webpage can help to increase your chances of ranking highly on search engine results pages. Many marketers and website designers assume that optimising images only impacts your rankings on image search results, and while this will help your images rank highly it is also important for organic search results outside of the image option. Optimising images correctly also influences how quickly a page loads, with slow speeds being reported for pages that have not taken into consideration how image SEO works. Page load speed is an important SEO factor and it can greatly impact your rankings on search engine results pages as well as the overall user experience. Image optimisation in SEO is an important part to include when developing an SEO and content marketing campaign, and the importance of this step should not be underestimated.

What are The Effects of Image SEO for Website Ranking?

Any image SEO guide will probably inform you that the reason why image SEO is important is that it helps to increase your ranking, and they would be correct! Incorrect image optimisation, or having no optimisation at all, can lead to search engines ranking you lower on indexes as things like load speed, mobile-friendliness and tons of other factors are affected through incorrect or no image optimisation. To improve your chances of ranking highly on search engine results pages, it is imperative that you optimise all aspects of your webpage, including the images that you add! 

What are The Benefits of Image SEO?

• Improves page load time: Correctly optimising images will decrease the amount of time that it takes for a page to load. This ensures that the user’s experience is better and that search engine crawlers will rank your page highly on search engine results pages. Page load speed is an important SEO factor and if your page takes too long to load, many of your potential customers or readers will more than likely leave the page without even looking at your content. Optimising your images is one way to ensure that this does not happen to you. 

• Image SEO can provide information for users who are visually impaired: Writing exciting titles and providing content to your images is not just beneficial for the search engine crawlers ranking your page, but it can also help those who are visually impaired better understand your content. Many images such as graphs and visual aids that help explain content are important for readers to understand and be able to comprehend. With text added to images and image SEO tags, all your readers, even those who are visually impaired, will be able to comprehend how your images are explaining your content. 

• Can improve rankings on SERPs: Anything that provides search engine crawlers with vital information can help you to increase your rankings on search engine results pages. Adding context to the images you have placed throughout your website will inform search engine crawlers that you know what you are talking about and that your website holds authority. Another factor that may help to increase your rankings on search engine results pages is having a fast loading time, and this should be taken into consideration when optimising images! 

What are The Things to Consider When Doing Image SEO?

When compiling an image SEO plan, it is important to remember why optimising images is so important, and the main reason is that it can help to improve the overall experience of the users who visit your webpage. While things like higher rankings are also important to consider, your user’s experiences are something that is actually becoming a more important ranking factor, with search engines like Google placing a spotlight on improving user experience through different tactics, one being image SEO! While adding many different images can help you to rank better, they should not be added if the addition does not improve the experience of your users and their capacity to better relate with your content. Many websites choose to add tons of unnecessary images in the hopes that they will help you rank better, but search engines are now smart enough to determine the difference between necessary and unnecessary image content! It is important that marketers and website designers keep this in mind as they develop content for web pages!

How to Optimize Images for Search?

Add Text to Image Descriptions

Adding good and informative text to image descriptions helps search engines better understand why it is important that a specific image be added. This extra bit of context helps the search engine crawlers understand and better rank your web pages for correct search queries. Keywords and image SEO are an important thing to consider and the phrases that are used to describe your text should be in line with standard SEO practices. 

Sizing

SEO image file size is important as this impacts how quickly an image and page will load. By scaling your images to suit a size that will not decrease page load times, you are optimising both your image and your webpage.

Use Correct File Formats For Image Seo Optimization

There are many different file formats that can be used when placing an image on a webpage, with different formats being better for different types of images. JPEG is a more effective format for product, banner or blog photos however PNG offers higher image quality and is preferred by those who are using graphs where numbers or smaller letters need to be displayed and clearly seen.Another popular kind of file format is GIF and this is the file format you can use if you are adding any animated photos to your website. the above are just a few of the different file formats to choose from and it is important that you consider which one will be best suited to the type of picture you are uploading. 

Use SEO Friendly Names For Images

When it comes to image SEO techniques, adding image filenames are important as they are the first thing that a search engine crawler will use to determine what your image is. It is important that you use keywords or phrases in the filename as this can impact how well a search engine understands what your image is and why you are using it. Not only is it important that you design your image filename correctly but the structure of it is also important. Keywords that tell you exactly what the image is should always be used first, followed on by words that delve a bit deeper into why it is on your page. 

Use Structured Data

Structured image data, or image schema SEO can help search engines better understand why you are adding the image, giving context that could increase your rankings on search engine results pages. Search engines also reward using structured data by displaying your image as rich results and may even add a badge to your image to increase the number of visitors to your webpage. 

Support Image SEO With Internal and External Links

Links are a great way to optimise your images for SEO as they bring more viewers to your webpage. internal and external links can be created through images, taking viewers to yor webpage from another or from another page to yours. 

Mobile-Friendliness

Having content that can be seen on mobile devices is a way to optimise your images for SEO. Mobile-friendliness is becoming more and more necessary as smartphones become a more vital part of our day to day lives, with many people using and working on their mobile devices as opposed to PC ones. Optimising your website to have a mobile counterpart and image SEO plugins that are able to work on mobile devices increases your chances of ranking highly and it should never be underestimated! 

How Markethinkers Can Help You to Optimize Your Image SEO?

Our Professional SEO Consulting team is able to help you in all areas when it comes to content and SEO! This is no different with image optimisation and our team of SEO Copywriting experts will be able to help ensure you have optimised your images to achieve the best results possible. We are able to help you structure your content and deal with the nitty-gritty behind the scenes details that may affect your ranking and/or the experience users have with your webpage. By letting us help you, give you image SEO tips and handle your image SEO as a whole, we can help you to rank as highly as possible and greatly improve your user experience! For expert market thinkers that you can trust, look no further than our team here at Markethinkers!