Last updated - January 4, 2023
Developing an eCommerce or blogging website isn’t enough if you don’t know how to optimize your content and get a better ranking over multiple search engines. Generally, people believe that making websites is sufficient for them, and they will start getting a good response from users and search engines. Unfortunately, this is not the case. You will have to spend your time and efforts or a considerable amount to start getting a positive response. Otherwise, your website will be lost in the sea of the internet.
To get continuous organic traffic, you should work on every aspect of SEO. Everything has its significance when it comes to SEO, and if you ignore any strategy, it could waste your efforts. This article is about an essential part of SEO that most experts ignore; image optimization.
Let’s start with the basic understanding of image optimization!
Image Optimization
Image optimization is the process of optimizing pictures before, while, and after uploading the images on the websites. It is an essential part of SEO, and you cannot ignore it if you want your website to achieve its goals. Moreover, this SEO practice can leave a huge impact on your website because many of your competitors are still ignoring it. That’s why the SEO experts always emphasize image optimization.
Before discussing how you can optimize pictures uploaded on your website, look at the benefits of image optimization.
- Enhance the visibility of your website content
- Improve the website’s loading speed
- Increase conversions of business and e-commerce websites
- Reduce load on servers
Coming to the actual topic!
How to Optimize Images for Better Image Search Results?
Here you can know how to optimize images so that it can be displayed in search results.
Resize Images According to Your Website Theme
Before uploading the images to your website, you should always resize the pictures as not every image is compatible with your website theme, and they can disturb the layout of your web pages. This problem is consistent with the websites that are operated by newbies. You should avoid uploading the images before checking how they will look on the web page and whether it is compatible with the theme or not.
Resizing the pictures’ dimensions isn’t difficult for anyone as you can do it using your desktop and mobile applications. There are multiple online tools and applications that provide this facility. You can easily resize images according to the theme’s demands within a few seconds. So, there is no need to compromise on it to save a few minutes.
Select the Right Image Format
Picture formats also play a significant role in image optimization. There are various image formats that are frequently used to upload images on websites. The most commonly used image formats are; JPG and PNG. There are many other image formats, and they don’t have any significant issues, but many web admins do not prefer them as multiple devices do not support them. That’s why you should also use only JPG and PNG. However, it can help to learn when you need to prefer PNG and when to pick JPG.
PNG format is the best when you need high-contrast and detailed images. PNG is better for product images, infographics, and other images where you need to show the minor details of the pictures. However, the PNG files are usually larger in size, and uploading a lot of PNG pictures can slow down your website.
On the other hand, when you just want to show ordinary images to support your claims or when the details are not very important, you can use JPG files as they are less detailed than PNG. The positive side of the JPG format is that these images are smaller in size, and those images don’t affect the website speed.
Compress Images
Uploading high-quality images is the need of almost every website as the low-quality images leave a negative impression on visitors, especially when you have a business website. Moreover, the high-quality photos add a sense of liveliness and enhance conversions. But there is a crucial issue with HD images. They are usually heavy in size. Therefore, they can slow down the server by multiplying the burden on them.
If you are facing this issue, you don’t need to worry, as you can use an online image compressor to reduce the size of your images and optimize your images according to your website’s needs. Just find a suitable image compressor, upload your pictures, choose the compression setting, and your compressed images will be ready to download.
Use Relevant Images
If you have a blogging or informational website, you should always use the images related to your content. The images should always support the text or vice versa. When both types of content are harmonious and add value to each other, it doubles the effect and can also impress the readers.
The problem is, how to find the relevant photos? That’s a big issue for all those who don’t know how to find the images but trust me; it is simpler than any other task. To find the relevant photos that you can use in your website content, you can get help from the reverse image search technique. Using the photo search method, you can find any picture related to your query just by uploading an image whose similar images you are looking for. It will show you a lot of results, out of which you can select and upload the picture you believe is the most related to your topic.
Using the reverse picture search method, you can also analyze which kind of pictures your competitors are using, and you can decide which kind of photos are the best for your website. That’s why don’t underestimate this search method. It can provide you with more benefits than you imagine.
Add Alt Attributes
Alt tags are an essential part of your image optimization. They provide a way for you to add text to an image, which can be helpful for both users and search engines. When the users hover their cursors on the image, the alt text appears there. Search engines also use alt tags when they index images. They can’t see the photos themselves; that’s where they use the alt tag texts to determine what the image is all about.
While selecting the alt tags, you should always include the keywords in the text as it helps you enhance the SEO score. Whenever a user searches for a query related to the keywords you have adjusted in the alt text, the search engines will bring your images and webpages in the results. That’s how the alt text can help you improve your SEO strategy.
Optimize Thumbnail
Thumbnails are widely used in e-commerce websites, especially on category pages. They are used to guide visitors about the products listed on a specific page. However, not every thumbnail is helpful as it can directly impact your website’s loading speed. That’s why you should try to avoid uploading heavy-sized images that can slow down your website. Try to keep thumbnail picture size as low as possible without compromising the image quality.
Conclusion
Optimizing your website images is vital as it is the only place where you can get an advantage over your competitors. When you don’t optimize images, you miss the opportunity to grow your website and attract massive organic traffic that could make a huge difference. So, start implementing the tips mentioned in this article; it will do miracles for your website and let you beat your competitors in the competition.
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