Image Optimization Tips
Image optimization is all about image SEO or getting your images to rank on Google and other search engines, it is also about shrinking your images to the smallest possible size without reducing their quality to allow your web pages to look and feel better. load quickly. This is important because everyone on the web expects websites to load quickly, in less than 2 seconds. Load speed has a direct correlation to the number of bounces you get and your overall revenue, 30 seconds either way can dramatically affect your sales. Search engines take into account the web speed of your site and the number of bounces you get when ranking your site.
There is a lot you can do when it comes to optimizing your site, your images, and the speed of your website, and this is becoming more and more important as more and more people use smartphones, roughly 60% of the million of new Internet users each day do so on smartphones. . Getting to the top of search engine results can be hard work, but very rewarding in terms of sales and increased organic traffic.
The twelve most important tips for image optimization are:
1 – Carefully select images that are relevant to the message you want to convey
Keep in mind that Internet users are more likely to react to images on your page than to read any text. A good image should grab attention and inspire readers to investigate and want to share your information. People often react to emotional stimuli, and an engaging image that really connects with your subject is more likely to make an impression. It’s usually better to take the time and create your own high-quality photos instead of using royalty-free images from the internet that many others also use. By using images that show humor or drama with your product, you are connecting on an emotional level, which is more effective than sterile, glossy commercial photos that are technically perfect but cold. Your own original photos are much better for SEO purposes.
2: Always use the highest quality format possible in any situation.
Search engines are designed to prefer high-quality content and high-resolution images. Web pages containing low-resolution or malformed images often appear distorted on a mobile phone or tablet screen, so you’re doing yourself a disservice by using low-quality images.
Generally, JPEG file formats are the best as they provide the smallest file size and best quality.
GIFs should only be used for thumbnails and decorative images, never for large product images, as the file size is very large and they don’t shrink well.
Where you can only get PNG files, they can be used for both JPEGs and GIFs and then, due to their extremely small file size, great for simple decorative images.
3: Name all your images in simple and descriptive language
To be successful with good image optimization and a web page that ranks high in search engines, it is imperative that you do everything you can to help the search engines.
Search engines crawl everything on your webpage, including filenames, so these should also be relevant and descriptive keyword-rich filenames.
Good image descriptions help improve your profile and enrich the relevance of your content by helping web crawlers better understand your images.
Alt text is similar to subheadings in that they both provide an opportunity to enhance your content for user experience and search optimization.
4: Name and Optimize Your Alternate Attributes Carefully
Fallback attributes are an alternative when a browser cannot render images correctly, use fallback attributes to images, in text, and for web accessibility. They are important for adding SEO value to a website, so they should include relevant keywords for images. This is one of the best ways for your eCommerce products to show up in web searches.
Always describe images in plain language
Add all model and serial numbers to your alternate attributes
5: Use your alternate attributes carefully
Don’t over-optimize by including too many keywords and don’t use Alternate Attributes for decorative images, as you can be penalized for over-optimizing.
Always check your work carefully as mistakes can be heavily penalized and remember that misleading subheadings will quickly increase your web page’s bounce rate, this sends a signal to the Google search engine that your site is untrustworthy, which lowers your rating.
6: Always have concise and accurate captions with your image
Use reading captions below images on average, 300% more than the body text itself, according to Kiss Metrics. So if you leave the subheadings blank, you are missing out on a good opportunity for SEO and optimization.
The important factor is to ensure both the relevance of the image and the relevance of the page.
7: Use of multiple images for better coverage and optimal viewing
Always arrange your images in sequence and in context so they flow easily, but keep in mind how much you’re uploading in your download time. Check the result and try to balance the correct number of images with the fastest load times. More images can mean more conversions, but too many can mean longer download times and more bounces.
When selling a product, include multiple angles to best showcase your product, but don’t go overboard with images as they all take up file space and need to be optimized.
8: Thumbnail Optimization
Using thumbnails is a great option but they should also be optimized but used carefully and as small as possible as they can have a cumulative impact and could affect your page load times. When adding alt text to thumbnails, be sure to use very different text than the main images or everyone could get confused.
9: Site Maps
If your images are not specifically listed in the source code of your web page, web crawlers will not be able to find them. So, to allow crawlers to find the images, they need their location to appear on an image sitemap. When using Javascript or image popups to improve the visibility or shopping experience of your webpage, using Google Image Sitemaps will make it easier for Google to notice you and rank you higher.
10: Decorative images
Things that are considered decorative images, such as background colors, images, buttons, fancy borders, or anything else added that is not related to the product, while they can add some appeal to a website, also use up a lot of file space and, therefore, they slow down. your page load time and as said before anything that is not necessary and delays the load time is bad for your web page and your site because people will not wait more than 2 seconds on average and the more faster, better.
11: Content Delivery Networks
Content delivery networks are becoming a very popular place to store content, both images and text for your website. This can have the benefit of solving any issues you may be having and help speed up your page load times, but it can also remove your backlinks and place them on the content delivery network’s domain instead of your site. As we have said and this is very important to emphasize Backlinks are critical for SEOso it is important to consider whether or not using CND is really in your best interest.
12: Test your web pages and websites
Testing everything is important and any errors will render all your efforts in vain as web crawlers will not be able to find you easily. Always check all alternative web pages and attributes. Also check for duplication and over-optimization, as both are often detrimental to your rankings.
Common sense, along with a little practical knowledge, should be applied to all optimizations, especially images, and for some reason many people overlook this important area. Mastering the art of image optimization is something that could mean the difference between success or failure online. If you don’t feel confident or don’t want to spend the time learning and implementing these basic strategies, it might be worth hiring the services of an SEO expert to do it for you. The drastic increase in new organic traffic and subsequent new sales will more than pay for the costs incurred in no time, remember that there are over 2.5 billion potential customers looking for products and services, but if you are not visible, you will miss out.