How Images on Websites are Often Overlooked
SEO images are an important part of SEO and can boost the visibility you are looking for. Covering all sites with an SEO strategy can drive traffic and increase conversions.
In this article, we’ll explain how images are often overlooked in SEO strategies.
Image size:
The SEO image optimization process begins before the image is uploaded to your website. The first thing we often overlook is the size of the image.
The size of the image that you use on your website affects the overall loading speed of your website. According to Google, “approximately half of all visitors leave the website if the page does not load within 3 seconds.” Most modern cameras and phones produce high-resolution images of at least 3000–5000 KB or larger.
So, by making the image size as small as possible, you won’t lose potential customers due to your website’s slow loading. As a general rule, you should strive to keep most of the images on your website around 100 KB.
Images Optimization practices
SVG Files
should be simplified, minified, and cleanIn Adobe Illustrator (gives more control):
Before saving a file-
REMOVE ALL EXTRA PATHS ON THE LAYER,
Merge objects in Pathfinder,
Make Compound Path, then
Object>Path>Simplify — Reduce Anchor Points and Angle Thresholds as possible
To remove unused objects go to
Object>Path>Clean Up — Select items that you want to remove and click OK.Saving SVG file
File>Export>Export As… Save As SVG — ExportSVG Options:
Styling: Internal CSS
Font: Convert To Outlines
Images: Preserve
Object IDs: Minimal
Decimal: 1–3 (1 is the best, but may affect an illustration)
Checked Minify and ResponsiveONLINE TOOL (less control but works perfectly for simple objects)
JPG Files
Resolution — 72 px/in
For full width backgrounds — max width 1000px
For other pictures — max width 500px
If a picture needs an overlay color, better to add it to the picture in Photo editor, not by CSS (minimize the size of the picture and less CSS code)In Adobe Photoshop:
File>Export> Save For Web…
Options: JPEG
Quality 40–60
Checked Progressive
Checked Convert to sRGB
Metadata: None
Image Captions:
Captions on images direct the reader’s eyes and help search engine crawlers understand the image better. Website visitors tend to scan web pages the first time they visit. They look at the captions to show the nature of the page and also look at the captions in the image. So don’t ignore this aspect of image SEO.
In fact, research shows that captions on images are read 300% more often than text is read. Also, you don’t have to add captions to every image, but if you do, make sure the captions relate completely to the image.
Alternative text:
If you don’t see the image on your website, you’ll see an alternate text or “alt text” for the image instead. According to our study, around 95% of websites have poor image naming and an irrelevant alternative text attribute.
Google uses alt text and image file names to understand the nature of image contents in its algorithms. Irrelevant alt text or file names reduce the quality of content for Google ranking. According to Google Images best practices, Google uses alt text along with computer vision algorithms and the contents of the page to understand the subject matter of the image. Also, alt text in images is useful as anchor text if you decide to use an image as a link.
For this reason, you need to optimize the alt text so that the image content is clear. Be sure to include the keyword, including a brief description of the image.
Image Filename:
Another most overlooked factor in SEO is the name of the image file. Imagine the image file name was _DSC3949.jpg. Google will not “realize” what the image is. Therefore, it will be difficult for users to find it in search engines. Google uses the URL path as well as the file name to help it understand your images.
Add a focused keyword phrase for each image filename. For example, let’s say you have a photo of a black BMW. Your file name can be “black-BMW.jpg.” You can call it “2013-black-BMW-sedan.jpg” to make it more accurate and easy for users to find. Whatever the main subject of the image, it should be its file name.
Wrapping it up:
SEO Image hacks are often overlooked when it comes to optimizing your website and blog posts. The areas of improvement described in this article are:
- Image size: Keep about 100 KB
- Image Captions: Make sure to add a caption that relates to the image
- Alt text attributes: Don’t forget to include keywords
- Image file name: Keep it short and descriptive
Signing Off
Implementing these simple image optimization techniques only takes a few seconds. By carefully considering these factors, you can not only improve your search engine rankings but can also be more competitive.
