Image Optimization For Better SEO
Most of the writers while writing learn about the optimization techniques which helps their article to stand at the top content wise, but what about the optimization of images? Yes, many of them still are not aware of this concept. They write articles with unique content with the proper flow following the standard rules for SEO but when it comes to add the images, they likely to add any of the related image with their article. But is it the proper method to do so, and the ans is big NO. Similar to content optimization steps, there are some basic steps which will help bringing your images at the top.
Below mentioned steps will help improving ranking in Google’s image search as well as it will improve on-page search optimization to give your ranking a boost.
Choose the right images:
Choosing the right images for your article will really help you to attract more number of visitors visiting your blog page. Thus to enhance the growth, try to choose the good images describing actual purpose of your article.
Give names to images:
Images containing proper names can be easily tracked and understand by Google. Therefore simple names displaying the main purpose are very helpful to make your blog stand apart from the competition. Don’t use large sentences for naming your images, just go with user friendly Google names to figure out what your site is all about. Search engines not only crawls the unique content but also they look for good keywords containing within your image file. To Recognize the distinct words you can use hyphens or underscores.
Use of Alt tags:
When you add any image on your article there comes a option where you are asked to give the title for image, alt text and description to describe something about image. This is the best practice to understand which images are being used and why. Some images takes time to load thus this is the case where Alt tags main purpose comes to know that helps users to stick on the image till it is loaded completely.
Follow some basic steps for describing images using alt texts:
- If you’re using image including text then that same text should be entered in the alt text.
- Sweet, simple and short alt texts can be beneficial.
- Use rich keywords and avoid stuffing of keywords.
Take care of Image Size:
Size really matters a lot when it comes under optimization as Google only track the websites loading all their pages quickly without frustrating users to stick on one page for long period of time. Therefore image file should be kept minimum and to do so use the WordPress plugin Smush.it which compresses the image file for faster loading. Smush.it is an online service from Yahoo which helps you to compress your image without degrading the size. You can easily reduce the size in Photoshop or other image editing programs. Beware of the images
EXIF data:
If one wishes to add the meta data to the actual image then it is possible with the help of EXIF data. EXIF is nothing but exchangeable image file format which contains more detailed data than alt tag and long description.
It includes data such as:
- What type of camera was used while taking the image.
- What was the speed, time and date.
- Whether flash was on or off.
- Height and width of image.
All this factors you will get to know from EXIF data.
Rich snippets:
This is the good optimization technique that helps tagging your image to your business or website. Hence this will help your business to grow and boost the traffic showing your highly related images to the users searching your business.
Use commonly supported file types:
Using common file types for saving images would be beneficial as users are more aware of common file formats, keep JPEG as a first choice, and PNG as a second choice. Keep the extension of your filename match with the file type (Ex: .jpeg or .png).
GEO locations:
This is one of the important tactics you can use to turn customers into the visitors. It allows you to add the location to your keywords. F0r example, if you are running business in San Francisco region then the image file should be like sanfranciscoabc.jpg
Conclusion:
I hope this article will be useful for you to optimize your images for better ranking as have included almost all important steps you should go though. Use the smarter and advanced techniques so that all your images should come up and you should see the more number of visitors searching your images when they Google about your business.
