Images have a significant role to rank on search engines. Many bloggers focus on making their textual content seo friendly and ignore optimizing images. But it is important to optimize images to boost ranking. If you are struggling to optimize your blog images and don’t know how to optimize images to drive high traffic then you are in the right place. In this guide, I will help you to optimize your blog images to ensure they are ready to rank on search engines.
Why Image Optimization Is Important?
1. Faster Page Loading Time: Optimized images can speed up webpage loading time. Faster page speed is crucial for both seo and user experience. Remember large and unoptimized images can increase bounce rates.
2. Better Search Engine Visibility: Properly optimized images have a greater chance of appearing in search engine results.
3. Better User Experience: Image serves as visual content that captivates and engages users.
4. Expanded Reach: Optimized images can draw traffic from visual content platforms like Pinterest.
5. Potential for Backlinks: When people use your blog images, they may credit your site. And it is an opportunity for valuable backlinks.
Strategies To Optimize Images Like a Pro
1. Choose the Right Image Format
Selecting the correct image format for your content is the first step in optimization. So, when choosing image format, it is crucial to ensure that it does not compromise quality.
JPEG: JPEG is a widely used format for digital photographs. It offers a good balance between quality and file size. JPEG is ideal for photos and images with a lot of colors.
PNG: PNG is best for transparent backgrounds, screenshots, logos and high quality graphics. It is a lossless format that preserves image quality even after resizing.
WEBP: WebP is a newer format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression while maintaining quality. It is used for faster loading time and supported by all modern browsers.
GIF: It is suitable for simple images with few colors like logos or icons. GIFs are usually used for animations.
2. Use Descriptive File Names
To make your blog images seo friendly, rename the file with a descriptive and keyword rich name. For example, Instead of “IMG_1234.jpg”, use something like “make-money-online.jpg”. This helps search engines understand the content of the image. Use dashes to separate keywords and avoid spaces.
3. Image Compression
Image size can significantly impact your website’s loading speed. Use online tools like TinyJPG.com to compress your images without compromising their quality.
4. Add ALT Text for SEO
An alternative text formerly known as alt text provides descriptive information about an image. It only appears on display when the image can’t load. Please use descriptive and relevant keywords on alt text but avoid keyword stuffing.
5. Utilize Image Title Text
The image title attribute adds extra information when users hover their mouse over an image. Use descriptive and relevant text in the image title attribute.
6. Use Lazy Loading
Lazy loading is a technique to load images only when they appear in the viewport. This can improve your webpage load time. WP Rocket is a popular wordpress plugin to implement lazy loading on a blog. Don’t worry if you are using the blogspot platform, I have already published a detailed post on how to lazy load images in blogger.
7. Use Image Sitemaps
An image sitemap is a file that helps search engines to discover all the images on a website. This can boost the visibility of your images in search results.
Final Thoughts
These are the strategies I use to optimize images on my blog to improve seo. Always remember that image optimization is a critical factor in SEO rankings. Optimized images not only improve seo ranking but also provide a better user experience.
If you have any questions about image optimization, please feel free to ask in the comments section below.
