Image Optimization Guide – How To Make Your Blog Images SEO Friendly

Importance of Images

Previously, search engines were blind to images, and the whole image database used to be of no use for ranking. Only tags and descriptions were readable, and the algorithm only considered these to make images contribute to the ranking of the page.

But recent developments in the fields of artificial intelligence and image processing have made some innovative features for images, including the image search feature which has changed the marketing, shopping, and page ranking standards in the digital world.

Benefits of Using More Images

Having a variety of images helps to attract people and gain their attention. With the increased use of social media in the young generation, it is too common to use images and infographics for every purpose. No one is ready to read a long description or text but they don’t consider images a burden. There are many photo lookup tools available on the internet that make it easier for you to find images of your choice. These picture search tools have eased the use of images, as this feature is implemented in numerous platforms such as reverseimagesearch, Google, Pinterest, etc. These online image search platforms allow the user to input images for picture search instead of keywords. This saves one from brainstorming keywords and phrases to find the exact content they want.

How to Make Images Optimized

• Use proprietary Images

These intellectual images not only refer to the images that you buy online or stock images, but the photos that you have takes or generated yourself. This makes your content original and removes any doubts of duplication. This increases the chance of your image appearing in image search results as your content will be unique. 

This will also open doors for your website to get backlinks. Unique and intellectual images coin various authentic backlinks as many people might want to include your graphic in theirs. You can search for the sites that have not claimed your link but used your visual by the image search tool.

• Image Filename

Your image is recognized by google based on its file name. Reverse image search site is one way to make the search engine read your file, but making your browser understand your image without image search is by its name. 

You need to put the keyword or main phrase in your image’s file name to make it relevant to the content. This is an SEO factor too. Relevancy of your image to the content plays a big role. This increases the chances of your content appearing in image lookup results.

• Best Image Format

Figure out what image type will be suitable for your image. There is no universal file type declared as best for image usage, but you need to decide this on your own considering the requirements of your page. Make sure the variant is also supported by common browsers.

The image format is important but make sure that you use standard quality images so that they have a low latency rate. If the website lags and is unable to pull data from the image server on time, user satisfaction will decrease, causing a negative impact on SEO.

Make sure your images are not too heavy for the browser to load as the image search results will not increase your traffic. Users will only see a blank tile instead of an image.

• Use Responsive Visuals

A big percentage of the audience uses mobiles and tablets. No one opens a PC to find little information. Your graphics must be screen flexible to adjust their size according to screen width. Large graphics might float out of the main screen if it is not optimized, reducing reader satisfaction.

• Use Alt Attribute

Alt attribute is used to display relative text instead of your image if the connection is too slow, or due to some reason, the image can not be displayed. Try to include keywords in it if they can be adjusted, without destroying the relevance of the image. This will not only help people but also the search engine understand what your image is about.

• Make Your Images Shareable

Adding the option of sharing is a big plus in increasing the reach of your content. Images will then be shareable across social media platforms, and other websites too. This helps in gaining more backlinks.

• Structure Image Data

Recently google launched new formats for image guidelines. They revealed that images should be structured to prove useful in image search results. For instance, if there are multiple pages in your blogs or categories, try putting them in different folders named with the most relevant keyword explaining what sort of images is inside, instead of putting all of them together in a single generic folder. This helps categorizes your data better to increase their chances of appearing in image search results.

Conclusion: 

Hence, images have a ton of ways to be optimized for increasing page ranking. SEO has provided many aspects in terms of graphics which it considers to improve the ranking.