How to Optimise Your Images For SEO

Around one billion people use Google images daily. By failing to include image optimisation in your overall SEO strategy, you could lose out on a significant amount of traffic and potential customers. So, if you’ve been neglecting image SEO, here’s a guide on why it's so important and how you can do it.

Why is Image SEO Important? 

Image optimisation is a key component of SEO for several reasons: 

1. Provides a Better User Experience 

Images will help make your page more appealing. By including relevant, high-quality images, you can keep people engaged with your content for longer, which reduces bounce rates and ultimately increases your chances of ranking. 

2. Boosts Traffic and Rankings 

Effectively optimised images will improve your page load speed (a significant ranking factor) and give search engines context, which can increase your visibility in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Additionally, visually appealing images can entice visitors and result in a higher CTR (click-through rate). 

3. Improves Accessibility 

By including alternative text (alt text), people with visual impairments can still understand the images on the page. This allows you to widen your reach and prevents you from alienating potential customers.

How to Optimise Your Images For SEO 

Now you know why image SEO is important, here’s how to do it:

Choose the Right File Format 

The file format of an image can affect its quality and load speed. These are a few of the most common file types and when you should use them.

• JPEG - this is a popular file format used for standard images when you're looking for a good balance between quality and file size.
• PNG - these are typically used for images that are more detailed and require better quality. However, the file size is often larger so these may take longer to load. 
• WebP - this is arguably the best option as it’s supported by most modern browsers and search engines, and typically creates smaller files but retains quality well. ‍
• SVG - use this file type for logos and icons, as they can be resized easily without losing quality.

Compress Images 

Large file sizes will slow down your website’s loading time, which often leads to high bounce rates, poor user experience, and lower rankings. By compressing images, you can achieve a smaller file size without losing out on quality, which gives you a faster and more user friendly website. You can easily compress images online using a free online image compressor tool. 

Use Descriptive File Names 

Images should have descriptive but concise names so that search engines can understand what the image is about.

For example: 

Don’t use: IMG57829.jpg 

Do use: blue-coffee-cup-on-white-table.jpg

Note: Google recommends separating words with hyphens rather than using spaces or underscores.

Add Relevant Alt Text

Alt text is used to describe images to visually impaired users or to display when an image fails to load. It’s also used to help search engines understand the content of the image. 

• Be specific but to the point - stick to as few words as possible (aim for 125 characters or less) while still explaining the main context of the image.
• Avoid phrases like ‘image of’ and ‘picture of’.
• Include relevant keywords but don’t keyword stuff. 

Utilise Lazy Loading 

Lazy loading is a technique in which you only load the images that are about to appear for the user. This helps boost page speed, particularly for image-heavy pages. Lazy loading should only be used below the fold, otherwise it can slow the entire page down. 

Plenty of content management systems such as WordPress make it easy to implement lazy loading with minimal set up.

Create an Image Sitemap 

An XML image sitemap makes it easier for crawlers to discover and index images on your site. Image site maps may not be needed if you don’t use many images or they’re not pivotal to the content on your site. But, if you’re looking to index new visual content quickly, rely heavily on images, or you use lazy loading (this can hide images from search engines), then an XML image sitemap may be beneficial. 

You can create XML image sitemaps manually, but this is often incredibly time consuming. Instead, use an XML sitemap generator. 

Need Help With Image SEO? 

Optimising the images on your site, especially if you depend on visuals such as product images, is an often overlooked but crucial aspect of SEO. By choosing the right file type, compressing images, using descriptive file names, adding relevant alt text, leveraging lazy loading, and creating an XML image sitemap, you can reduce loading times, enhance your user experience, improve accessibility, and increase your traffic and rankings. 

If you’d like expert help optimising your site’s images, feel free to get in touch with us today. 

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