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If you are looking for answers ways to improve your image SEO, you are in the right place. We all know that image SEO helps optimize the images on a website so that it is easily identified by search engines. Eventually, it improves the ranking and visibility of the content on Google or other search engines. Image SEO includes image type, load time, size, keywords in the image file names, optimization and usage of alt text. You should understand that image SEO is an important element of an on-page SEO. A poor image SEO can cause great damage by sinking the ability of the page to rise in the index, drive valuable organic traffic and gain links. Therefore, it is important to create a good image SEO. For that, you need to reach out to a professional SEO company in Chennai like Digital SEO to revamp your website with the best image strategies. In this article, we will discuss the ways to develop and create a huge impact with an image SEO.

The Power of Images

Save Space, Compress Images

Reduce the image sizes with a compressor tool. The speed of a website has a great impact on the page’s overall ability to gain traffic and rank. Site speed is an active ranking factor as it enables the user to move from page to page spontaneously without any hassle. Google does not favour a slow webpage, and as the page speed and image SEO are inextricably linked, it is crucial to perform image compression. When images are improperly sized, they inhibit the page speed. A quick hack to find how much space you will save on compressing images is by expanding the requisite tab in the PageSpeed Insights report, which will indicate the biggest page offenders. After analysing them, you can use compressor tools to compress the images one at a time based on your CMS.

Use Original, Quality Images

Do not consider stock images as an option when you want photos to pop up on your site. If a site is filled with stock images, it looks unoriginal. You would have seen so many websites cluttered with the same generic photos. But if you want to create a genuinely unique website, you have to add high-quality and original pictures. The more authentic images you have, the better the ranking will be with an improved user experience. Keep in mind not to use the logo on the image.

Use Keyword Rich File Names

Creating keyword-rich and creative descriptive file names for the images is important. The file names for every image alerts the search engines like Google about the subject matter. Search engines will not detect or identify the file names like IMG_547347 or anything similar. Therefore, instead of uploading the pictures onto the website, it is essential to change the file names. Adding a keyword to the file names will improve SEO value by making the search engines understand the pictures better. Though this is a bit of work, changing its default name is always the best idea.

Add Images to Sitemap
Google is the most popular search engine used by most of the world population. As Google has updated its image guidelines to use its file path and name to rank images, it is the actual ranking factor in today’s world. Add images to your sitemap somewhere to increase the chance of the search engine indexing the images, which eventually increases website traffic.

Make Images Mobile-Friendly
Making the images mobile-friendly is essential to scale to the website’s size when the user works with a mobile or desktop. This feature is mandatory to adjust the image size according to the device.

Image SEO Best Practices You Need to Know

Use the Right File Format

The first step in adding images to a website is to ensure that the file is in the right format. Various image formats, PNG and JPEG, are commonly used for the web.

  • PNG files offer better images with great clarity and quality, but they are usually larger in file size.
  • JPEG files can adjust to the quality required to give a good balance.
  • WebP is an image format supported in browsers like Firefox and Chrome.

Avoid Copyright Conflicts

You have to ensure that the image files you choose to use on your webpage have no copyright conflict. If you use stock photos from Shutterstock or Getty without a license, you are at risk of a lawsuit. There are chances of you getting a notice for violating the copyright under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Thus, looking for available images for reuse is recommended and the good news is: Google Images allows you to filter and get such pictures.

Use SEO-friendly Alt Text

Alt tags are alternative to images in the form of texts when images fail to load so that the user can see what the image is supposed to contain. The alt tags describe the content of the image file on the top left corner of the picture. Paying attention to alt tags improves the overall on-page SEO’s success, and so you have to ensure that these alt tags are relevant and fit with the image. Alt tags provide Google with appropriate information about the subject included in the image.

Pay Attention to Page Titles

The page title and description are part of the image search algorithm. Basic on-page SEO factors are header tags, metadata, copy on the page, and structured data, which helps rank the images better.

Define the Image Dimensions

If the web page contains PWA or AMPs, defining the image dimension in the source code is essential. If the website does not contain PWA or AMP, it is still best to define the height and width of the image as it provides a better experience for the user. Doing so allows the browsers to size the images and prevent the page from getting overloaded.

Use Structured Data

Structure data is important as it helps achieve a better listing in image search. Structure data marks up the content by guiding the search engines to deliver better visual results. Google might add a badge to the images with structured data, which helps in driving more traffic.

Inspect Lazy Loading

The loading time a browser takes to defer an image until it is displayed on the screen is called lazy loading. The loading process takes place as you scroll down any webpage. Thus, you have to ensure that the lazy loading aspect in your webpage must speed up the page loading when they are long and have many images.

Summing It Up
Image optimization techniques help improve the likability of content through search engines. As Google uses images to recognize elements and contribute to a good user experience, it is essential to concentrate on the pictures and follow the best practices mentioned above. Digital SEO Chennai makes an immense effort to take care of all the essential steps to ensure that the images are of great quality and increase user experience tremendously like no other. To know more, get in touch with us.

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I’m Eivine Renny, a content marketer who believes that words spell magic and trusts in the power of words above all! As a content marketer in the endless galaxy of contents, i can lend a helping hand in making your contents shine with a sparkle that captures attention!

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