Did you know that optimizing the images on your website can help them rank higher in Google Image search results? It’s called Image SEO and it’s a great way to improve your website’s performance!
Optimizing your images has several benefits. For one, it enhances the reader-friendliness of your content. Additionally, it increases the speed of your website. More importantly, it helps Google to understand your images better and display them as search results when someone looks for images on Google’s search engine. This ultimately increases the traffic to your website.
What to do in Image SEO
Use the right image format
It’s important to choose the right image format for your website. Google supports several formats including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG. Understanding which format to use in different situations can help improve your website’s performance and make it more search engine-friendly.
So, the best option to use for logos and illustrations is SVG. For photographs, use JPG/JPEG or WebP. For animations, use GIF or WebP. For images with transparency, use PNG or WebP.
Use the right image size
It’s important to compress images with large file sizes to increase page speed and optimize website performance. Compressing images doesn’t affect image quality.
Use relevant images
Google says to ensure your images are relevant to the page content. For example, putting a picture of a kitten or puppy on a cake website doesn’t make sense.
Placing of images
Google recommends you place images near relevant texts. Your pictures should be placed in order of priority. The important ones should be placed near the top of the page.
Use of Descriptive Alt tags
Google says Alt text which is text that describes an image improves accessibility for people who can’t see images on web pages, including users who use screen readers. e.g. white-puppy-running, black-kitten- on a couch, etc.
Google also adds it as anchor text when you use the image as a link.
Use of Cache
Caching is the process by which a copy of a website’s content is temporarily stored to reduce page load time.
When a visitor arrives, your server doesn’t have to spend time compiling images and pages. This leads to better image SEO and overall website performance.
High-Quality Content
According to Google, creating high-quality content has a positive impact on the ranking of your images. Therefore, it is essential to focus on providing excellent content. Google aims to keep visitors engaged by offering them the best content. By providing Google with what it is looking for, you can expect good rankings as a reward.
Use of descriptive titles, captions, and filenames for images
Google knows more about the images of your content from the caption, title, and filenames you give them.
By implementing these techniques, you can increase your website’s traffic and improve the user experience for your visitors. Additionally, optimizing your images for Google Image search can help you reach new audiences and increase your website’s overall visibility on the web.