Image Seo

It is important to understand the best visual marketing image SEO practices. Our article will show you how. Exploring the Meaning of Image SEO in your Marketing Strategy. The simplest definition of image SEO is any step you take towards optimizing images on your site. You do it intending to make the work of the search engines easy. Find the best free stock images about seo. Download all photos and use them even for commercial projects. Optimizing your images for SEO is still an important element of any search marketing strategy. But the most effective tactics and the target end results have changed. In the modern world, you’ll be optimizing your images for three reasons; to improve user experience, to get your images found using Google Image Search, and to decrease your. Jun 18, 2019 Optimizing images for SEO goes well beyond the image file name. Here are the steps to SEO image optimization: 1 Use relevant images. Don’t use your keywords on irrelevant images just to get more keywords onto your page. Google hates keyword stuffing! Serve the reader first by including useful, relevant images.

SEO, or search engine optimization, might seem complicated, but at a fundamental level, you can think about it this way:

Everything on the internet is either a piece of content or a link (between pieces of content).

Traditionally, the pieces of content that have the most inbound links from the highest-quality site have the best ability to rank in the search engines. That's the principle that Google was built on.

Page A has more links from pages of similar quality than Page B; thus, it has more ranking authority.

The quality and quantity of a page’s inbound links are known as “off-page” SEO. But there are also a wide range of on-page SEO factors, including image SEO. And that's the focus on our article today.

What is image SEO?

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 SEO includes elements like image type, size, and load time and your usage and optimization of alt text and keywords in image file names.

Image SEO is one of the more often overlooked elements of on-page SEO, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. In fact, if you’re not careful, poor image SEO can do a heck of a job of sinking your page’s ability to gain links, rise in the index, and, ultimately, drive valuable organic traffic.

The good news: You can make a huge impact on your image SEO with just a few steps:

Use a compressor to reduce image sizes
Serve images in recommended, next gen formats
Scale your images to work with your website
Create original, linkable image assets
Optimize your image titles, captions, and alt text
Make your images shareable
Try lazy loading for images

Now let's discuss these in a little more detail. Here are our top seven must-implement image SEO tips to make sure your images are fully optimized for search.

1. Use a compressor to reduce image sizes

Site speed has the single biggest of impact of image SEO on a page’s overall ability to rank and gain traffic. It’s huge—site speed not only impacts a user’s ability to move from page to page along your conversion path; it’s also an active ranking factor. If your pages are slow, Google is not going to look upon them favorably. That’s where image compression comes in.

You may or not be familiar with PageSpeed Insights. It is super handy. Enter any URL on your website, and Google gives you an in-depth assessment of the elements that are hindering that page’s speed. Run a few of these tests, and you’ll start to notice a common theme.

Improperly sized images are often the primary inhibitor of page speed. And because image SEO and page speed are inextricably linked, image compression is a crucial aspect of image SEO.

Simply expand the requisite tab in your PageSpeed Insights reports and you will see the images that represent the biggest offenders on your page. You’ll also see how much space you stand to save if you compress them. You can use a tool like TinyPNG to quickly compress images one at a time—or, depending on your CMS, you can use various plugins/tools specifically geared for your site (think Smush for WordPress) to bulk compress all the images on your site.

2. Upload images in next gen formats

Another common recommendation you’ll see cropping up in your PageSpeed Insights report? “Serve images in next-gen formats.”

The formats we’re talking about here are JPEG 2000, JPG XR, and WebP. If you’ve never heard of any of them, don’t feel like you’re not in the know—they’re not as ubiquitous as JPG or PNG. But while JPG and PNG are still the dominant image formats, next-gen formats like JPEG 2000 truly are superior. Encoding your images in these formats instead of the old formats helps ensure faster load times and less data usage on mobile.

If you want to start serving images in next-gen formats, there are plenty of free online converters that will help you do so.

3. Scale your images to work with your website

Proper image size (and we’re talking dimensions here, not file size) is going to vary depending on your CMS, as well as the format of the page on which you’re uploading the image. Look up dimension best practices for your CMS (Shopify, for instance, recommends using 2048 x 2048 pixels for square product photos) before uploading your images. An image that looks like it fits nicely with your content …

… might actually have been automatically resized by your CMS to fit. This resizing corrects the dimension for display—this will not reduce the file size. And generally speaking, images with more pixels will have greater file sizes. That means that the surest way to make sure that you’re using the correct images sizes is to get a handle on your site’s optimal image size and then crop images before you upload them. If that sounds like an arduous process—well, it can be if you’re getting images from around the web. But if you’re downloading stock images, or outsourcing product images to a designer, you’ll do well to find a standard size that’s geared for your specific site.

4. Create original image content

Stock photos are easy for sizing—most of the images you’ll download from Adobe Stock or Shutterstock or other vendors are going to come in sizes that are friendly to most sites. But stock photos aren’t always as effective as original, branded creative. Curated graphs based upon in-house data or high-quality shots of your product in action, on the other hand—these are the kinds of images that get shared on social media and searched for with reverse image searches.

Most importantly: Unique, compelling images are necessary to make your page original and valuable for your user. And time and time again, when the experts at Google are asked for a prescription for strong SEO, or for a response to a particular shift in Google’s algorithm that has caused a drop in rankings, they say this: Create pages that are above all valuable for your audience. That means using images that will help users get the best experience possible from your pages.

5. Use titles, captions, and alt text liberally

When Google is determining which image to return for an image query, it has access to a limited amount of information. Less information, at any rate, than it has access to when it is indexing whole pages. For image SEO, that means you need to be giving Google all the information you can about your image in the space you’re allotted. There are three primary places to do this:

Alt text: Alt text is helpful from a user experience standpoint for people using screenreaders or if your server gets tripped up and can’t load the image (the alt text will still show on the page).

But in terms of ranking, alt text is the primary means by which Google understands what your image is—so, naturally, it’s huge. As a best practice, include the page’s target keyword and any ancillary keywords that might apply to a specific image, and omit anything language that is not descriptive (articles, etc.)

Titles: There has been much debate over whether image titles are necessary in conjunction with alt text. But they are ranking factors, insofar as Google does use them when determining the order in which to provide images in image search.
Captions: Here’s what Google has to say about captions: “Google extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles.” So, essentially, placing your image near relevant text is going to help Google determine what that image is. Using captions are a bulletproof way to make sure your image is described adequately and in context.

6. Ensure seamless social sharing

Let’s talk about Open Graph tags and/or Twitter Cards. These are tags within your page’s HTML that ensure when someone shares that page on Facebook or Twitter, images and descriptive snippets are displayed correctly. Naturally, this is huge if you want your images to gain steam on social media and drive traffic and strong social signals back to your site.

You can search for these elements in your source code if you’re not sure if they’re there. You can also try mock posting your page on either Twitter or Facebook to make sure the post is populating correctly. It’s the difference between showing your friends and followers a one-off link, and showing them a big, clickable image card with a description about your page.

Implementing Open Graph tags will again depend on your CMS. If you’re using BigCommerce, for instance, you’ll find open graph fields in all of your product listings on the back end (inconveniently, you won’t find one on your home page).

If you’re using WordPress, you’ll find these fields in Yoast (a really super SEO plugin for WordPress users). It’s a good idea to go through your most traffic-heavy and business-valuable pages and make sure they’re all equally shareable on social.

7. Give lazy loading a try

Image Seo Wix

Aside from having a catchy name, lazy loading can go a long ways in increasing page speed by not loading below the fold images until your users scrolls down to them. Take it from Google: Lazy loading can significantly speed up loading on long pages that include many images below the fold by loading them either as needed or when the primary content has finished loading and rendering. That’s about as good an endorsement as you can get.

Google also endorses lazy loading in its very own PageSpeed Insights. You may run into this recommendation when you’re running page speed analysis on your own site.

That is Google telling you that, in this scenario, lazy loading can be an asset. If you’re a WordPress user, there are a few lazy-loading plugins worth checking out. For all other users, check out Google’s guidelines on the subject here.

Image SEO: don't skimp on it!

We’ve given you seven low-hanging image SEO action items to implement on your site. Keep in mind that you don’t to use all of these, but you should certainly do all you can to use as many of these tips as you can with the time and expertise you have at your disposal. For instance, you may be uncomfortable hard coding Open Graph tags, but everyone can add search-friendly alt text or use a free tool to compress images effectively. Decide what’s most important and most feasible for your strategy and go from there!

Your Complete Guide To Image SEO

Most site owners ignore visuals when it comes to ranking their site and this is a mistake. Image SEO has become a staple for pushing past the competition and attracting thousands of new leads.

So, how does image SEO work? What can a site owner do to ensure their images are optimized for Google and Bing?

Let’s take a look in this in-depth read on the subject.

Basics

It’s important to start with the basics before diving headfirst into the details of image SEO.

Image SEO is ideal for:

1) Infographics/Graphs/Images Made To Gain Traffic

2) Product Images

3) Images for Sale (Licensing)

This is a good step for those wanting to know where image SEO can come in handy and why it should be the primary focus of their setup.

Now, it’s not only these images, which require SEO but it’s a good starting point moving forward.

For statistical proof, 12.5% of all web traffic pushed by search engines begins from images or image packs. This illustrates the potency of image SEO and the amount of traffic it can generate 24/7.

So, what does it take to optimize your images?

Image File Name

You want to begin with the file name. It shouldn’t be a random assortment of letters/numbers because that does nothing for the site. You need to make sure it is named after the specific keyword being targeted. For example, if you are showing an image of acne, you will want to name the image “Acne” or “Acne Treatment” because it will help optimize the image.

The same applies to every image that goes up on your site.

Do not waste your images by leaving them poorly titled. It will hamper your chances of growing the site or ranking well.

Image Caption

You want to look at the image’s caption next. The premise of the caption is to let the viewer know what they’re looking at but that’s just the beginning. You want to shape the text so it is clear and to the point.

Once again using the acne example, you will want to state what the image consists of.

If possible, please include the keyword in this caption. Don’t spam but make sure it is present at least once naturally.

Image Alt Tag

Alt tags are important with images because Google’s bots will scan for them and you want to keep these tags optimized.

Image Seo Optimization

The tags are a way to decipher what the file is about.

This means you want to ensure the keyword is used in the alt tag. Keep it simple but make sure it is present.

Page Title

Don’t forget the importance of your page and its headline. The title does matter and it should sync with the image itself. If not, you are wasting your effort and search engines will gloss right over the visual.

You want to ensure the page title fits what the image is showing.

If possible, use the targeted keyword in your title once. The same applies to all sub-titles used on the page.

Surrounding Text

What is present around the image? If you want to optimize the image, you have to look at what is surrounding it. The text should be based around the image and should add value to the visual.

It should be optimized for the keyword as one would with any piece of content.

Don’t avoid this or assume the image alt tag should suffice. It won’t and you will be missing out on a higher ranking.

It’s also important to note, your text should read well. It shouldn’t be a jumbled assortment of words because this will take away from the page’s chances of ranking. Google will look past the image itself and downgrade its value.

Read and re-read your work before publishing it!

Page URL

The page is going to be scoured by Google’s bots, so you want to ensure the page URL has the keyword present. If not, you are not going to rank well and the site will miss out on a great opportunity.

The page URL should be concise, easy to read, and include the targeted keyword for your image.

This is the bare minimum.

Dimensions

With the image being put up, you want to ensure it is sized appropriately. Remember, Google and Bing are picky when it comes to a site’s layout and will not accept an oversized image because it hinders user engagement. They want the image to fit nicely on the screen (desktop and mobile) before ranking the site. Get this right as soon as you can!

Keep the dimensions as close to a square as possible. This is the best rule to apply for dimensions because it appears neat.

When it comes to the image’s dimensions, you should also assess the image’s file size. It should not be larger than it needs to be and that can be an issue with high-resoluation images. Look to downsize them as much as possible because it will hamper your chances of ranking.

Engagement

Google’s algorithm has become picky when it pertains to user engagement and the same applies to images.

You won’t have control over this but Google is going to push up an engaging photo over time.

The only thing you can do is make sure the image is crisp, relevant, and compelling.

Backlinks

Unlike text, if your image is showing on other sites, it will bode well for its chances of ranking.

Google and Bing don’t mind multiple uses of the image. In fact, studies have shown the original photo can often be outranked by other sites who have used the same image!

You want to make sure it is embedded on other sites to bolster your chances of ranking.

Focus on building a reputable setup where the images on your site are compact, easy to view, and do not bog down the site. This will ensure you’re able to rank well on Google and Bing to see higher traffic numbers.

Remember, it won’t happen overnight but the right approach here could lead to a boatload of traffic down the road.

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