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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? 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? ›

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 .

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.

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.

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.

* 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.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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? 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.