5 Tips for Image SEO
Did you know that 19% of all google searches return image results?
These websites are the ones ranking in search because their images are optimised for page speed, relevance and have the right information displayed to Google crawler bots. Those that don’t optimise their images are more likely to suffer from a high bounce rate and lower conversions. In fact, 88% of site visitors refuse to return to a site where they had a poor user experience (UX).
So if your site isn’t optimised correctly, you could be missing out on hundreds or thousands of new visitors (and sales) every single month!
Image optimization is important, since it offers important contextual information for search engine bots that don’t have eyes like us. These bots just read pixels, and can’t determine what is displayed in the images by pixels alone.
So, how can you work with images to let them help improve your SEO?
Image Format
File Name
Alt Tags
Compression
Title and Meta Description
Image Format
There are a few different types of image formats that exist, including:
PNG
JPEG
GIF
Each of these image formats has its own pros and cons.
For example, PNG is good for simple images but typically has a larger file size, while GIF is interactive and mobile-receptive, but will affect load time. Since site speed is a huge component of technical SEO, JPEG is usually the best choice to keep the file size small, but the image quality may suffer.
However, the supreme queen here is the JPEG2000. Converting JPEG to JPEG2000 is recommended since it’s a “next gen” image format which helps with page speed, browser support and size.
File Name
Before you begin with on-page optimization, the image file name is an important off-page step. It helps your search engine to determine what the image shows, since image pixels offer no clear picture to an AI.
This piece of information should be performed before you upload the image, on your computer. Name the file with a short-tail primary keyword relevant to your page content. It should be less than 4 words, and include hyphens between each new word.
For example, imagine you run a gold and silver investment service, and want to upload an image of a gold bar. You’d want to name the image with something like “gold-bar-investment”: a concise but clear description of what the image shows, which is also relevant to the page.
Alt Tags
The next off-page improvement to make is in your alt text and alt tags. These are further tidbits of information to help a search engine determine whether your images (and your page) is relevant to the user search in hand. However, these won’t typically affect your page speed or load time.
Use secondary and branded keywords as part of your alt tags. Again, this should be performed prior to upload onto your website and should be ingrained into the image file.
Let’s use the precious metal investment example from earlier. Your alt tags might be: “Gold Bars”, “Invest in Gold”, “Gold Silver Investment”, “Price of Gold”, for example.
Image Compression
More often than not, images for upload are too large. This means they have too many pixels, which can slow down the load time of the page (and sometimes, the entire site!). In fact, 65% of the average page load time is contributed to by images alone.
Image compression saves space on your page and avoids bloat. It leads to faster loading times and a better experience for your user, which search engines consider when choosing where to rank.
We recommend you compress images with WPSmush if you have a Wordpress site, or TinyPNG if you don’t.
Title and Meta Description
Finally, we reach on-page optimisation… hallelujah!
The title and meta description are both performed after upload of the image onto your website. These should be as descriptive but concise as possible in order to help search engines determine what the image shows, and when to display it in search results. It’s all about the context!
Title your image with the same words as your image file title: use the primary keyword and keep it below 4 words long. Use hyphens between each word so that crawlers can read the title easily.
The meta-description helps you add context to your images. While you should avoid keyword stuffing, this should contain one or two longtail or secondary keyword terms that are relevant to the image and page’s purpose. The ideal length for a meta description is between 10 and 15 words.
Using the gold bar example from earlier, your title should be: “Gold-Bar-Investment” and your meta description could be something along the lines of… “invest in gold bars with physical gold bullions for your investment portfolio”.
Require SEO help?
Get in touch with us here at The Search Cure. We help Fintech and certified financial services professionals to be seen by their ideal clients by appearing in search results.