Do you remember adding images to your website? What are the steps you usually follow to do so? Downloading a picture from shutter stock and uploading it to the backend of your website. After that, you choose a page to implement the image. This is all you do to get the most of image optimization, and it is the perfect example of shining image optimization for you.
Have you ever tried to know the file size you are adding to your website? Or have you ever weighed the impact these images can have on your site? Well, to let you know, you have added a ball of weight to your website that slows down your page speed to a great extent. The loading speed of your website is hampered, and this restrains it from appearing on the first page of search results.
SEO pros are already aware of the fact that the optimization of images for a website is worth the time spent on doing so. Images appear on Google image search if they are optimized well; without doing so, you are losing a valuable asset for SEO efforts made.
We know the thoughts are creeping in your mind. How can we optimize the images to improve SEO? Well, good image optimization is done by adding alt tags, compressing them to the extent possible, and a few other SEO tricks. We will discuss better image optimization in our article today with which you can appear in the first position of the image search.
Let us know some essential factors to ensure that your images are findable and don’t slow down your website.
Compress your images
Web pages become bloated when massive images are added to them, or images uploaded are not duly compressed. Images are responsible for adding almost 20% of the total weight to a web page. There are several WordPress plugins available that help to compress images before uploading them to the website effectively. Ensure that you use a plugin that compresses an image without compromising the quality. Also, make sure that the images are compressed externally and reduce the load on a website.
Create unique images
Remember we are doing this to make your image pop-up in Google image search for your website. If you keep adding stock images, you will be a part of the herd of sites that virtually uses the same images. Moreover, it looks quite unnatural and makes you similar to those thousands of websites that don’t stand out. Think of your business as corporate, who takes pride in the quality of services provided. Even if you have optimized the stock image perfectly well for SEO, it will not bring the impact or benefits, as an original image would bring.
Choose the right format
Choose the right file type before adding the images to your website. There are several file type options available to choose from, but JPEG and PNG are the two most preferred. PNG images, on the one hand, are images with better quality and have comparatively larger file sizes. JPEG, on the other hand, is low on quality with apt-file size. However, the quality of an image is adjustable to find a perfect balance. JPEG will prove better for visual images taken by a good photographer.
Make Mobile-friendly images
Don’t forget to optimize your images for mobile SEO as well. A website experiences the majority of visitors from a mobile device, and if the images are not optimized properly, it can give you a high bounce rate. But, if the images are AMP friendly, they will provide you with better ranking and more engagement. Create responsive images that automatically scales and adjusts itself to the screen size of the device.
Add images to the sitemap as it increases the ability of search engines to crawl and index them. It automatically results in increased site traffic.
Final Thoughts
Optimizing images is mandatory in digital marketing practices. Voice search technology is increasing, and the media is experiencing great importance. The score of your overall website will improve if you work on optimizing your images better. Image engagement is also responsible for Google Search Engine ranking. Make sure you don’t lose a chance to rank better, so optimize your images and make your effort count!
Author Bio
This is Sharon Winget, Staff Writer with GoodFirms, a review and rating platform of top IT companies & software. A tech geek at heart, I firmly believe technology can transform societies. I enjoy blogging about web design, email marketing, and content marketing.