What is Image Optimization
Image optimization is the process of ensuring that the images that are integrated on a website does not slow down the page speed, should have appropriate tags, optimal file size, and type. This helps in providing the correct context of an image to the search engine. The main objective of image optimization is:
- Complementing other on page optimization efforts and help in attaining better ranking for web pages
- Ensuring the visibility of images in the vertical image search section of Google
Tips that will help you with image SEO.
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Image File Type
Image file type impacts the page speed parameters, which makes it essential to choose the correct file type for your image. The three commonly used file types by websites are – JPEG, GIF, and PNG
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Image Name
Though Google has made great advancements in machine learning, however, it does help Google if we add context to our images using the file name.
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Image Path or Image URL
It is observed that most of the websites have web pages in the relevant folder, which is not the case with images. Images are usually added in one folder only.
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Image Alt Tag
Image alt text or alternative text is another attribute that helps in indicating the context of an image to the search engines. It is used by screen readers that help people with visual impairment to browse the web and also gets displayed when there are issues with rendering of the image. This helps in improving the user experience and is also one of the Google ranking factors. The length of the text should be below 100 characters.
Note: Site optimization tools or third party crawlers like screaming frog can help in identifying the images which do not have alt text or have alt text with more than 100 characters
Conclusion
The image optimization techniques ensure that the image name, path, alt, and title tag provide the right context about the image to the search engines. Also, select the image file type based on what you want to achieve with the image and do keep a check on the file size.