What is Image SEO and how to do it

 

Image SEO is the process of optimizing the images on your website so that they are easier for search engines to understand and find, thereby improving their visibility and ranking on Google and other search engines.

Image SEO involves optimizing image type, size, and load time, as well as image file name, alt text, and keywords.

Image SEO is a Google ranking factor! Image SEO helps in ranking posts. So today I will discuss with you how to do image SEO on WordPress website and some advanced tips.

Why is image SEO important?

About 38% of Google's SERPs display images — and that number is growing. This means that despite your best SEO efforts, you could still be missing out on another source of organic traffic — if you don't optimize your website's images for search engines.

• Image search is a way to discover information on the web.
• Google and other search engines generate a huge amount of searches. According to 2018 data from Jumpshot, over 20% of all US web searches occur on Google Image Search.
• Good quality images help in the ranking of posts.
• Also, images, when used correctly, will help readers understand your article better.
• Image SEO is very important for ecommerce websites.

Without proper image optimization, you are wasting a valuable SEO asset. Image optimization offers many benefits - such as better user experience, faster page loading, and additional ranking opportunities.

How to do image SEO?

First you need to find the right and relevant image - whether it's a photo, diagram, or chart - the next step is to optimize it for use on your website.

Below are some steps on how to optimize images.

1. Choosing the right image file format

Before you start uploading images to your site, you need to make sure you choose the best file format.

Although there are image formats, PNG and JPEG are the best formats for the web.

• PNG: Produces good quality images, but comes with a large file size. The .PNG file format is not always suitable for site speed optimization.
• JPEG : The image https://sites.google.com/view/worry-about-unemployment/home  quality may be lower, but, in my opinion, is of good enough quality, and helps balance the site load.
• WEBP : The only image file format supported by both Chrome and Firefox that is best suited for lossless or lossy compression.
• SVG : It cannot be indexed by Google search engine . Therefore, SVG cannot be used.

However, if you use JPEG format images for your website, you should definitely convert them to WEBP format. Changing to this format will optimize your images much better.

Again, in the case of PNG format, changing it to WEBP or AVIF format will optimize your image much better. However, WordPress does not directly support AVIF format images, in this case, you can use this plugin WebP Converter for Media . This plugin will automatically change your website images to WebP and AVIF at the same time.

2. Use descriptive alt text

Currently, the alt tag is used to tell search engine robots what the image is about or what the image is about. It is also known as the "alt attribute" and "alt description".

This is an HTML attribute that is plain text. Using this tag helps search engine robots understand your image.

Alt text - the text that describes an image. Many of us usually use a single word in the alt tag. However, it is best to use a sentence as the alt tag.

For example, instead of "On Page SEO," you can say "How to do On Page SEO?"

3. Image file size optimization

Website speed is very important for ranking and user experience. The images you use on your website play a big role in slowing down your website speed.

In this case, you must optimize the image file size. Compressing an image keeps the image quality intact but reduces the size.

4. Give a title and caption

People tend to think that these are not that important in SEO, but that is not always true.

And the image caption helps website visitors understand what the image is about.

So, these are good SEO practices.

5. Set the dimensions of the image.

When we create an image, we usually set the dimensions too high. As a result, the size of the image increases significantly.

If the dimensions of the image are too large, even if you compress it with an image compressor tool, you will not get good results.

Therefore, when creating an image, reduce the dimensions of the image before exporting it. If you export an image with a very large dimension, reduce the dimensions using an image resizer tool.

You can resize images with Adobe Image resizer or bulk image resizer tool.

6. Use an image optimizer plugin

In WordPress, you will find various image optimization plugins. These plugins optimize the images on your website after they are uploaded. Moreover, some plugins automatically change the format of the images.

Currently, there are various types of image optimizer WordPress plugins, among which the names of some popular free WordPress plugins are given below.

7. Image file name

When we export an image from any software, the default name of the image is something like "20220324_184544" or something that doesn't match the image.

You must change this to match the name of your image. And, you can use keywords in this case.

8. Use your own images

Many of us download stock images from different websites and modify them a bit and use them on our websites. But these images are used by a lot of people. As a result, your image is not completely unique. So, you should definitely use your own image. You can use free ready-made templates with Canva or create beautiful images yourself.

That's all for today. I hope you liked this article. If you have any questions about this article, please comment.