A lot of bloggers and content writers don’t consider image optimisation when publishing blog posts and articles. There are writers who don’t even consider searching for the right image to accompany their content, and either leave the post blank or upload an image that is unrelated to the words next to it.
Today, getting your images SEO-compliant has become an integral part of blog posts, web content and online articles. The internet is a crowded place with more than three million articles uploaded each day. And given this astonishing amount of content fighting for attention, image optimisation is a great way of helping get your posts high up on search engines. Here at Woo, we consider it one of the most important content marketing services on offer.
Image optimisation is all about getting your product, blog and article images to rank on Google and other search engines. It is about making your image one of the first that Google sees when it crawls for relevant content.
Images make your content more attractive and engaging to users, but they must be seen easily by search engines. An SEO-optimised image increases page rankings and content optimisation. So, if you’re keen to breathe some life into your articles, we will now explain in detail how to optimise images for SEO.
Relevant Images
Your blog posts need relevant images to the content you upload, with the images illustrating the topic of the article. A great content strategy can help you out here. You should also keep images at the top of your post, and if it’s possible just before your opening line so that the keywords are matched, and visible to search engines.
Right File Name
File names should always be the first place to start with image SEO because you want Google to know what the image is about. If you are writing an article on a Fast & Furious film, and you use an image of Vin Diesel in a sports car, the name of the image should not be ‘furious.jpg’ or ‘download’. A proper filename should be ‘Fast-Furious-Vin-Diesel-In-Car.jpg’, making sure that the subject of the article is at the beginning of the image. Google searches filenames for SEO, so your file name should be your focus keyword.
Proper Image Format
The proper image for your content depends on the kind of image you are using and how you want to use it.
- A JPEG image should be used for larger-sized photos, as it gives good results in terms of colour and clarity
- A PNG format is ideal if you want the image to be preserved for background transparency
- For logos and icons, SVG format is best because if you need to resize it, there will be no loss of quality.
Responsive images
These are images that fit every screen size and resolution, especially on mobile devices. If all readers or content surfers use the same-size screen or image resolution, then optimising images won’t be a problem. However, because users read from different screens, the best solution is the Srcset image attribute – this helps to adjust the images based on the user’s screen.
Alt Text
The aim of the alt text is to show the image description if, for any reason, the image can’t be displayed on the user’s screen. Alt text is used in situations where images are turned off, or a screen reader is in use – the alt text ensures that the image information is not lost. You should include the SEO key phrase in the image alt text, as it helps the search engine make sense of the image. When the alt text or information surrounding the image is relevant to the content, Google deems the image as important. Your alt text should also be relatively short – don’t stuff it full of keywords.
Captions
Captions are important in image SEO, because they are read three times more than the body of the content itself, so not using them risks an opportunity to engage with your audience. People tend to scan images and captions as they surf the web because these captions enhance your blog posts. Your image caption is what determines if a reader will click on your post – without the right captions, you will have an increased bounce rate – that is, people will look at the page then go away without bothering to explore your site further.
Image Sitemaps
Google image extensions are used to provide additional information about the images on your blog or website. Image sitemaps help Google find images that your site reaches with JavaScript code (images that your site will not find) and allows you to indicate images that you want Google to crawl. Site maps tell search engines about the pages on your site, so it is important that all your images – memes, pictures, thumbnails and so on, are included in your site map.
Images add appeal to your online content, breaking down ideas, supporting your posts and appealing to the mind of visitors because of their visual representation. Optimising images for SEO contributes to good search experience for the site user and Google. A content marketing agency is an ideal choice to do this – please get in touch with us if you need help with your SEO image optimisation.
Remember that you didn’t create your site for yourself, nor published a post to hide it on the internet – so, if your goal is visibility, then try out these strategies the next time you upload a post. Do that, and you’ll notice a real improvement in your search engine performance.