11 tips on how to SEO optimize images for better web visibility

SEO is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. By optimizing your website and images for search engines, you can improve your visibility and attract more visitors to your site. In this article, we will discuss how you can optimize your images for SEO and improve your website’s ranking in search engine results pages. By following these tips, you can help your website rank higher and attract more traffic!

What is SEO, and why is it important?

SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of optimizing your website and its content in order to rank higher in search engine results pages. SEO helps your website to appear more often in the top results for relevant searches, which can help you attract more visitors to your site.

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How can you optimize your images for SEO?

There are a few simple steps you can take to optimize your images for SEO:

Use keyword-rich file names for your images

When naming your images, use keywords that are relevant to your content. This will help the search engines to better understand what your image is about, and it may help your website rank higher in the search results pages.

Write appropriate alt attribute with relevant keywords

Include keywords in the “alt” attribute of your image tags. This will help the search engines to better understand what your image is about, and it may help your website rank higher in the search results pages. Also, doing this will help with the user experience, as the alt attribute will show up in case the image doesn’t load.

Use copyright-free images

Make sure to follow the DMCA(Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and use copyright-free images on your website. If you use copyrighted images, not only can it lead to legal issues, but it can also lead to Google flagging your website and removing it from all search results pages. You can find copyright-free images on Google images, Pexels, Pixabay, and a host of other online websites for free.

Optimize your images for fast loading times

One of the factors that Google takes into account when ranking websites is their loading times. By optimizing your images for fast loading times, you can help improve the performance of your website and potentially increase its ranking in the search engine results pages.

Create mobile-friendly images

Creating mobile-friendly images is important, as more people are using their phones to access the internet. By creating mobile-friendly images, you can ensure that your website is accessible to a larger audience and potentially increase its ranking in the search engine results pages.

Add image dimensions to the image

Adding the width and height dimensions of your images in the image tags will help with page loading times and potentially increase your website’s ranking in the search engine results pages. This helps with CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) as there is not much shift in the page layout when the image is loaded on account of the browser knowing the height and width of the image in advance. Adding image dimension to an image is a great way to SEO optimize images.

Use a content delivery network

Using a content delivery network (CDN) can help improve the loading times of your website and potentially increase its ranking in the search engine results pages. A CDN is essentially a network of servers that are located around the world and are used to serve up your images faster.

Use schema markup

Schema markup is a type of code you can add to your website to help search engines understand the content on your site. Adding schema markup for images can help increase their visibility in the search engine results pages, which may result in more visitors to your website. You can refer to this article by schema.org to know how this can be done: image – Schema.org

Avoid using too many images

Too many images on your website can slow down the loading times and ultimately reduce its ranking in the search engine results pages. So it’s best to avoid adding too many images on a single page of your site. A rule of thumb to understand if you are using too many images is to check the page size using GTMetrix or Google Pagespeed Insights. If it is greater than 2 MB, consider reducing the number of images on the page.

Use the right image format

Using the right image format is also important in order to help optimize your images for SEO. For example, using JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics or screenshots is ideal. You should also consider using WebP, as it is a modern image format that is much more efficient than JPEG and PNG. Doing this will help improve the loading times of your website, which can positively impact its ranking in the search engine results pages.

Use unique images

Using unique images on your website can help to make it stand out from the competition and potentially increase its ranking in the search engine results pages. Using stock photos may be tempting, but it is always better to use original and high-quality images that are tailored specifically for your website.

Images are an important part of any website, as they help to convey the message and story that you are trying to tell. By optimizing your images for SEO, you can help improve the visibility of your website in the search engine results pages and attract more visitors. In this article, we have provided a number of tips that you can use to optimize your images for SEO. We hope you find these tips helpful and put them into practice!

If you need further help with SEO services, feel free to reach out to us. We work with businesses of all sizes and can help you create an SEO strategy that works for your website. Contact us today to learn more!

Happy optimizing!