Images play a vital role in SEO and they can help in generating good organic traffic and leads for the business. Yes, you read that right but most people don’t realize the potential of optimizing the image in a proper way.
Only adding Alt tags to them is not enough and there are several other things that you have to keep in mind while dealing with images. If you are new to image optimization then we have you covered. In this draft, we will have a look at the six best ways to optimize the image that will outperform competitors and rank better.
1. Use page-relevant images
It’s very important to use images that are relevant to the context of the page so that readers can have the best experience. That’s the reason why you should skip adding random stock images on pages that are not relevant to the text of the webpage or blog. If the images are irrelevant, there are high chances that the users will bounce back and bounce rate of the website will increase.
It’s better to choose the suitable SEO packages or hire an in-house graphics designer who can design custom posts as per the page or blog post. It will improve the website’s authority and also help in improving the average page retention time. Even if you are using stock, pexels, or pexabay images, make sure they are relevant to the page.
2. Highest quality images
Google and other search engines bots pay a lot of attention to the quality of images used on a website. Higher quality images add more value to the user experience. That’s why it’s inevitable to use higher quality images but of lower size. Many people upload high-resolution images but they forget to compress the image in the right way.
So to get a boost in SEO, make sure you are using original and high-quality images that are relevant and information-driven. If you are using infographics in your blog post, ensure that the text is readable and it’s easy to skim without the need for downloading the image.
3. Compress the files
Image compression is an underrated SEO services practice that only a few people follow in their optimization process. If the images are on the heavier side, the users’ mobile or desktop devices will take a longer time to load the resource. If the page takes too much time, the bounce rate will spike suddenly. So, even while selecting main images for banners, ensure they all are compressed and they are not affecting the loading speed.
To maintain the good speed of your website, you can also use CDN to streamline the server load and offer a better browsing experience. If you are using a theme for your website while redesigning, remember to remove all the stock images as they are of higher size.
4. Maintain all meta tags
To rank images higher in search engines, you need to optimize all the meta fields of the images properly. Be it the alt tag, image name, or caption if needed. The user and the search engine need to properly understand the images. If there is an alt tag present on the image, Google can’t understand what the image is all about.
If there are some decorative images on the site, you can skip those files and optimize all the other image files that are relevant to users and search engines. If you are using CMS like WordPress or SEO booster for Shopify Platform, can easily add all these data from the dashboard.
5. Organize them well
Image organization is vital for both better user experience and better crawlability. Just like the flow of content, image should also be placed in an organized manner. It improves the browsing experience of the site and improves the time-on-page of the website. Once this thing is done right, the website will start ranking for good organic positions.
If you are running multiple websites on subdomains, you need to organize the image in proper folders and keep the complete architecture seamless.
6. Add your watermark
The best way to get higher rankings from image is to add a watermark to the images so that most people will give you credit for using them. If you are posting infographics, it’s a smart idea to add your company logo. By doing this, even if someone copies your image, the readers can check the original source of the image.
However, you can’t watermark all the images but wherever it’s possible, you should do it to gain your credibility over the internet. This simple trick will help you gain more quality backlinks if the image is very information-driven and it’s adding some value to readers’ lives.
These were some of the best ways to optimize images and rank them for better positions. if you haven’t done any optimization yet, it’s the right time to start with image optimization and get higher rankings.
