10 Tips for Image SEO (2024)

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Times have changed since the era of dial-up Internet, when users had to wait minutes for a single image to load. Today, we can enjoy fast Internet access—even on our mobile devices. But make no mistake, image optimization for users and search engines is just as important as it ever was, if not more so.

In this article, we will take a look at the many ways you can optimize your images for search engines.

1. Use the right image

Finding and using the right type of image for your website is an essential step towards success. A great place to start is good old Flickr.com. It has a wide selection of different photos to choose from, along with an ability to filter content by license.

That means that you can easily find a picture that you can legally use for commercial purposes—or even one that has no copyright restrictions. (Make certain you have all necessary permissions to use or modify the image for your own purposes.)

10 Tips for Image SEO (1)

Images delivered for a search of “black car” on Flickr.

Other popular options include:

  • Freeimages: Massive community with over 2,500,000 registered users and around 400,000 photos online
  • New Old Stock: Vintage photos from the public archives of institutions participating in Flickr Commons
  • Public Domain Archive: Repository of high-quality, public domain images from across the web
  • Unsplash: Ten new high-resolution photos available every 10 days, free of charge

2. Choose the right file format

After you have chosen the right image, you need to decide which file format is optimal for your needs. Since we are mostly concerned with pictures and relatively complicated “photorealistic” graphics, we have to choose from three commonly used raster image formats: GIF, PNG, and JPEG.

  • JPEG is the most commonly used image format today. It uses lossy data compression; which means that, depending on your settings, the image quality can suffer quite a bit. There is also no support for transparent backgrounds like there is with GIF and PNG formats. The biggest advantages of using this format is it keeps file sizes small and it is supported almost everywhere.
  • GIF is a bitmap image format used for simple art and animations. Because it supports only 256 colors, it's not recommended for photographs or more photorealistic images. However, its small file size and support for transparent backgrounds make it ideal for company logos and various page elements of websites.
  • PNG is a modern alternative to GIF and JPEG file formats. PNG supports transparency, has a better color range, and automatic gamma correction ability. PNG can even store a short text description of the image’s content to help search engines categorize your images. This file format is the newest of all three, which means it's not so readily supported. Also, file sizes can be a bit larger.

3. Optimize your images for the web

When optimizing images for the web, your goal is to reduce the file size as much as possible, without sacrificing too much in terms of image quality.

You have several options, but the easiest means of making this happen is to use an online compression tool like TinyPNG or Compress JPEG. Simply upload your image and the web application will take care of everything for you.

10 Tips for Image SEO (2)

If you compare the compressed image with the original, you barely notice any quality loss.

10 Tips for Image SEO (3)

The compressed image is on the left.

Adobe Photoshop (shown below) places all of the control in your hands, if that's what you want.

10 Tips for Image SEO (4)

4. Use informative file names

For images downloaded from your camera, give them a new name that's descriptive, making it easier for search engines to find them.

A good example would be something like this: IMG_Seattle_MusicFestival_2015_01.

5. Pay attention to alt text

Alt text (short for “alternative text”) is used to highlight the identity of an image when you hover over it with your mouse cursor. It also shows as text to all users when there are problems rendering the image. Additionally, it is used by screen readers that help the visually impaired navigate the web.

The simplest HTML code for an image looks like this:

<img src=”http://example.co.uk/uploads/big-steak.jpg”>

Apart from the file name, search engines visually impaired people have limited information to help them figure out what a web image is about. However, by including alt text like that below, you can precisely describe the content of your picture.

<img src=http://example.co.uk/uploads/big-steak.jpg alt=”Old man eating a big steak in the restaurant”>

You can also look at tags like the “title” property, but a simple alt image tag is enough to tell Google and other search engines what the picture is about—and help you rank better in the SERPs.

6. Separate your thumbnails from main pictures

Ideally, your thumbnails should be as small as possible to minimize page load time. That means you need to resize them and use the appropriate level of compression. Since they tend to be pretty small anyway, you can sacrifice a little bit of picture quality for increased speed.

To do this, you can use a photo editing powerhouse like Photoshop, or you can use one of many free tools that are available today. These include online picture editors like Pixlr, PicMonkey, and Fotor; and also GIMP, which is a freely distributed program that can do most things Photoshop can (but sometimes in a way that is much less user-friendly).

7. Create image sitemaps

Google encourages you to use image sitemaps to give their search engine more information about the images available on your website. This allows them to find even those images that are loaded by a JavaScript code, which is often the case with product images and slider galleries.

If you already have a sitemap for your site (and you should), you can add image information to it or create a separate sitemap just for your images.

Creating the sitemap is not too complicated. Basically, for each URL you list in your sitemap, you can add additional information about images on that page. Google gives us an example for the URL http://example.co.uk/sample.html:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"> <url> <loc>http://example.co.uk/sample.html</loc> <image:image> <image:loc>http://example.co.uk/image.jpg</image:loc> </image:image> <image:image> <image:loc>http://example.co.uk/photo.jpg</image:loc> </image:image> </url> </urlset>

You can find more information and a complete set of image tag definitions here.

If you are running a WordPress website, you can also take an advantage of available plugins. For instance, Google XML Sitemap for Images and Udinra All Image Sitemap both automatically create Google XML sitemaps for images.

8. Don’t rely on third-party image hosting

Image hosting services like Imgur and Postimage allow you to upload images onto their servers, which is great for saving some space and lessening the overall bandwidth your site consumes. The major downside is your images may become deleted or blocked when the hosting services are overwhelmed with high amounts of traffic.

10 Tips for Image SEO (5)

This is what you want to avoid.

Because of this, it is always a good idea to use your own servers to host your images. You will definitely see how beneficial it can be in the long run.

9. Integrate social media

Social media plays an important role in your overall SEO and customer acquisition strategy. The easiest way to integrate your images into social media platforms is to add social media sharing buttons to your website.

One of the most popular ways to encourage visitors to share your images to Pinterest is to add a simple "Pin It" button to each one.

10 Tips for Image SEO (6)

A great tool to use is Image Sharer by SumoMe. With Image Sharer, you can easily allow visitors to share the images on your site and link back to you. It supports Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Yummly. You can customize the way Image Sharer icons appear; and if you buy the Pro version, you also get 24/7 help and the ability the ability to remove Image Sharer branding.

10 Tips for Image SEO (7)

Image Sharer in action.

10. When in doubt, consult Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Google has prepared a set of image publishing guidelines to help you optimize your site for their search engine and your visitor as part of their Webmaster Guidelines. You can find the complete guide here. It includes detailed information on the topics discussed in this article, and much more.

What tactics are you employing to ensure that your images show up in Internet search results?

10 Tips for Image SEO (2024)

FAQs

Which image type is best for SEO? ›

Choose The Right Format

PNG: Produces better quality images, but comes with a larger file size. JPEG: You may lose image quality, but you can adjust the quality level to find a good balance. WebP: Choose lossless or lossy compression using this, the only image format supported by both Chrome and Firefox.

How does SEO work on images? ›

Image SEO is the process of optimizing the images on your website so they are easy for search engines to “read” and find, consequently improving the visibility and rankings of your content in Google and other search engines.

How do I optimize image names for SEO? ›

7 Ways to Optimize Image Files for SEO
  1. Use clear and descriptive file names. Aim to make your image file names easy for Google to comprehend. ...
  2. Use keyword-rich alt text. ...
  3. Context is key. ...
  4. Monitor page load times. ...
  5. Reduce the file sizes of your images. ...
  6. Use commonly supported file types. ...
  7. Supply an image sitemap file.
19 Dec 2019

Does image size affect SEO? ›

Image file size can disproportionally affect page load time so it's important to get it right. JPEGs are usually more SEO-friendly than PNGs, especially if you do not need transparent backgrounds, as they offer better compression levels.

Do images improve SEO? ›

Images make any content more interesting and appealing by helping readers understand your content better. Plus, images add value to your SEO efforts by increasing user engagement and accessibility of your website. There are a number of important factors that can be optimized to help improve image SEO on your site.

Do image names matter for SEO? ›

Optimizing all of your content for SEO is important for your rankings, including image filenames. User-friendly image filenames are more likely to be recommended by Google. The filename should be descriptive, include applicable keywords and use hyphens instead of spaces to separate words.

How do you optimize an image? ›

Here's how to optimize images for the web:
  1. Name your images descriptively and in plain language.
  2. Optimize your alt attributes carefully.
  3. Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely.
  4. Reduce the file size of your images.
  5. Choose the right file type.
  6. Optimize your thumbnails.
  7. Use image sitemaps.
30 Mar 2018

How do I optimize images for Google? ›

  1. Create a great user experience.
  2. Check your page title and description.
  3. Add structured data.
  4. Optimize for speed.
  5. Add good quality photos.
  6. Include descriptive titles, captions, filenames, and text for images.
  7. Use descriptive alt text.
  8. Help us discover all your images. Use semantic markup for images. Use an image sitemap.

Why image submission is important in SEO? ›

Image submission is a great way to boost online visibility, especially if your website or business is relatively new. If your website has less content and more high-quality images, submitting them to websites can improve your website's online domain authority.

Why is image optimization important? ›

Why is image optimization important? Here are the answers - Image optimization helps in improving page load speed, boosts websites' SEO ranking, and improves user experience. Page load speed is the amount of time taken by a web page to load completely.

How do you optimize images for the web? ›

How to optimize images for the web
  1. Use concise and direct image names. ...
  2. Optimize your alt attributes carefully. ...
  3. Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely. ...
  4. Resize your images. ...
  5. Choose the right image format. ...
  6. Optimize your thumbnails. ...
  7. Use image sitemaps. ...
  8. Beware of decorative images.
21 Oct 2021

What is best image size for website? ›

2500 pixels width is ideal in most cases. You don't need to resize your images if they're wider than 2500px and meet our other specifications. Images less than 1500px wide may appear blurry. We suggest different widths for site logos, browser icons, email campaigns, and animated .

What is a good resolution for website images? ›

The standard resolution for web images is 72 PPI (often called “screen resolution”). At that size, the pixels you see on the screen are all the pixels there are; an image that's 4” long at 72 PPI will take up about 4” of your monitor.

What is image alt tag in SEO? ›

Definition: An alt tag, also known as "alt attribute" and "alt description," is an HTML attribute applied to image tags to provide a text alternative for search engines. Applying images to alt tags such as product photos can positively impact an ecommerce store's search engine rankings.

Does image metadata affect SEO? ›

The answer is… it depends. If your page speed is already running slow and you have a lot of images, it's a good idea to just get rid of it. But if you think it could be good for local SEO or your site has no speed issues, metadata may help you.

What size image does Google like? ›

* For best results, provide multiple high-resolution images (minimum of 50K pixels when multiplying width and height) with the following aspect ratios: 16×9, 4×3, and 1×1. (Google updated thier documentation on Auguest 22, 2022. Formerly it was a minimum of 800,000 pixels when multiplying width and height.)

Do images in blog posts help SEO? ›

Nowadays, most of us can't imagine publishing a new post without any images in it. Certainly, from an SEO perspective, the text in your blog will always play an important part. But the use of images will help your post attract more attention on Facebook, Twitter and even Google.

How do I optimize images for SEO in WordPress? ›

6 Image SEO Tips for WordPress
  1. Optimize Image Size and Quality. Uploading large images to your website can make your site sluggish. ...
  2. Rename Every Image Before You Put It On Your Website. ...
  3. Use Hyphens in Image Names. ...
  4. Keep Image SEO Simple. ...
  5. Fill In the Title and Alt Fields. ...
  6. Make Changes When You Change Your SEO Strategy.
26 Jul 2019

What is image keyphrase? ›

Include Your Focus Keyword

Use your focus keyword or keyphrase in the image alt text where it's appropriate. The focus keyword/keyphrase is what you want searchers to find your content for. Including it in your alt text improves your chances of ranking in Google's image search on that keyphrase.

Why images are renamed in SEO? ›

Using pictures with the default filename created by the camera or the imaging software is fast and easy; however that is ineffective for SEO purposes because Google cannot actually see photos or images. Therefore, it relies on the file name to index and rank both the picture and the page on which it appears.

What is alternative text for images? ›

Alternative (Alt) Text is meant to convey the “why” of the image as it relates to the content of a document or webpage. It is read aloud to users by screen reader software, and it is indexed by search engines. It also displays on the page if the image fails to load, as in this example of a missing image.

How does Google Image Search algorithm work? ›

Google Image Algorithm works either by scouring for related images that are based on the search query the user enters or by analyzing the image you upload through Google's reverse image search, AKA, the “Search By Image” option.

How do I make my website images sharp? ›

Here are some tips you can use to make sure every graphic is beautiful and crisp.
  1. Saving images in the proper color space. ...
  2. Compress the file sizes. ...
  3. Use the correct file format. ...
  4. Export multiple sizes for high pixel density displays. ...
  5. Upsizing smaller images by 115%
18 Nov 2021

How do I save an image without losing quality? ›

PNG. PNG's can produce a higher quality image, but with larger file sizes. PNG files tend to be saved out because it allows for a transparent background. It is a lossless image format, so the quality isn't lost when reduced but this creates that bigger file size.

How do you make a Web image Ready? ›

There are three simple things you can do to minimize the file size.
  1. Set the image resolution to 72 dpi. Make sure your graphics are at an appropriate resolution for web browsers—72 pixels per inch (ppi). ...
  2. Limit the number of colors. ...
  3. Reduce image dimensions.
6 Feb 2012

How do you solve an efficient image encoding? ›

There are many steps you can take to optimize your images, including:
  1. Using image CDNs.
  2. Compressing images.
  3. Replacing animated GIFs with video.
  4. Lazy loading images.
  5. Serving responsive images.
  6. Serving images with correct dimensions.
  7. Using WebP images.
2 May 2019

How do I optimize a JPEG? ›

Open an image and choose File > Save For Web. Choose JPEG from the optimization format menu. To optimize to a specific file size, click the arrow to the right of the Preset menu, and then click Optimize To File Size.

What is SEO social media optimization? ›

Social media optimization (SMO) is the use of social media networks to manage and grow an organization's message and online presence. As a digital marketing strategy, social media optimization can be used to increase awareness of new products and services, connect with customers, and mitigate potential damaging news.

Why do we do image submission? ›

This helps in connecting a brand with the image that portrays its features. This also helps in generating organic crowd on your website. It enhances the credibility of the brand and business. By using appropriate images, you can rank-up your website in the search engine results.

What is image submission backlinks? ›

Image submission means simply placing your site images on different sites to connect with people and it assists in creating good quality backlinks and gets traffic to your site for free of cost. It is an Off-page SEO activity that helps in gaining more links from renowned sites.

Why is SEO important? ›

In short, SEO is crucial because it makes your website more visible, and that means more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. Check out the SEO tools you can use for optimal ranking.

Does image size affect website performance? ›

Sites that use too many images, or have images that are too large, have longer loading times. This can slow down your entire page, irritating visitors and actually hurting your site's ranking in online search results.

What is optimized image? ›

What is image optimization? Image optimization is about reducing the file size of your images as much as possible without sacrificing quality so that your page load times remain low. It's also about image SEO. That is, getting your product images and decorative images to rank on Google and other image search engines.

How can you optimize the images to make sure the website is loading fast? ›

Optimize your images #
  1. Choose the right image format.
  2. Choose the correct level of compression.
  3. Use Imagemin to compress images.
  4. Replace animated GIFs with video for faster page loads.
  5. Serve responsive images.
  6. Serve images with correct dimensions.
  7. Use WebP images.
  8. Use image CDNs to optimize images.

Is PNG or JPEG better for web? ›

PNGs support transparency, and it is the best option for website logos that need to appear on various color backgrounds. Is a PNG or JPG better? JPGs are better for a quick loading website. PNGs are better for clearer images.

How do you optimize an image? ›

Use progressive JPEGs and next gen file formats to ensure images load faster. Utilize caching both on the client and server side to eliminate wasteful image re-loading. Use compression to reduce file size without noticeably affecting quality. Resize images to the appropriate size before displaying them to users.

How do you optimize images for Google? ›

  1. Create a great user experience.
  2. Check your page title and description.
  3. Add structured data.
  4. Optimize for speed.
  5. Add good quality photos.
  6. Include descriptive titles, captions, filenames, and text for images.
  7. Use descriptive alt text.
  8. Help us discover all your images. Use semantic markup for images. Use an image sitemap.

How could you Optimise image? ›

Here's how to optimize images for the web:
  1. Name your images descriptively and in plain language.
  2. Optimize your alt attributes carefully.
  3. Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely.
  4. Reduce the file size of your images.
  5. Choose the right file type.
  6. Optimize your thumbnails.
  7. Use image sitemaps.
30 Mar 2018

Which of the following are the ways of optimizing the images? ›

4 ways to optimize your images
  • Reduce file size before uploading. An image file size is mostly affected by its dimensions, quality, and file format. ...
  • Use an image optimizer like ShortPixel or Imagify. ...
  • Host your images on a CDN. ...
  • Add a lazy load plugin. ...
  • 9 comments.

Does image Name Affect SEO? ›

Does Image File Name Affect SEO? Yes, it does.

What is the best size of image for a website? ›

2400x1600px, jpeg, saved for web, and optimized

To ensure that your full width images look good across any device big or small the recommended size is 2400x1600px. Note that devices have different ratio than the one you shoot and it is possible your images will be cropped when viewed on web.

How do you optimize images for website? ›

How to optimize images for the web
  1. Use concise and direct image names. ...
  2. Optimize your alt attributes carefully. ...
  3. Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely. ...
  4. Resize your images. ...
  5. Choose the right image format. ...
  6. Optimize your thumbnails. ...
  7. Use image sitemaps. ...
  8. Beware of decorative images.
21 Oct 2021

What is image alt tag in SEO? ›

Definition: An alt tag, also known as "alt attribute" and "alt description," is an HTML attribute applied to image tags to provide a text alternative for search engines. Applying images to alt tags such as product photos can positively impact an ecommerce store's search engine rankings.

Does image metadata affect SEO? ›

The answer is… it depends. If your page speed is already running slow and you have a lot of images, it's a good idea to just get rid of it. But if you think it could be good for local SEO or your site has no speed issues, metadata may help you.

How do I make my website images sharp? ›

Here are some tips you can use to make sure every graphic is beautiful and crisp.
  1. Saving images in the proper color space. ...
  2. Compress the file sizes. ...
  3. Use the correct file format. ...
  4. Export multiple sizes for high pixel density displays. ...
  5. Upsizing smaller images by 115%
18 Nov 2021

How do I optimize an image for web without losing quality? ›

The key to successful image optimization for web performance is to find the perfect balance between lowest file size and acceptable image quality. The three things that play a huge role in image optimization are: Image file format (JPEG vs PNG vs GIF) Compression (Higher compression = smaller file size)

Why is image optimization important? ›

Why is image optimization important? Here are the answers - Image optimization helps in improving page load speed, boosts websites' SEO ranking, and improves user experience. Page load speed is the amount of time taken by a web page to load completely.

How do you make a web image Ready? ›

There are three simple things you can do to minimize the file size.
  1. Set the image resolution to 72 dpi. Make sure your graphics are at an appropriate resolution for web browsers—72 pixels per inch (ppi). ...
  2. Limit the number of colors. ...
  3. Reduce image dimensions.
6 Feb 2012

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