Images and SEO
When analyzing page structure and layout, it’s good to adopt the following approach: there is a subtle, yet smart method to employ pictures in an SEO-friendly manner (beyond ALT tags) that improves the search result ranking while allowing you to integrate the necessary marketing message.
Assume you run a travel website and want to rank a certain page for the term “Las Vegas hotel.” Let’s say you also want to include a compelling marketing message like “Book now and save 20%!” Although the aforementioned tagline lacks detailed language, it has persuasive qualities. As a result, you might wish to use an image for the tagline and a header tag for the essential term (i.e. Las Vegas hotel). This emphasizes the intended term while yet allowing for marketing without jeopardizing keyword consistency.
You want your photographs to stand out on your website. If you use stock photography on your website, it will appear generic, much like countless other websites that don’t stand out.
When there are a number of websites that have the same generic stock photos, Google lumps you into a catagory of websites that will not get priority ranking. Consider a business site, a consulting firm, or a service that prides itself on customer service that uses stock photos. Many different websites will end up using the same stock image of a man in a suit smiling. To have an original photo would set your website apart, and give you an advantage on the competition on the SERP (search engine results page.)
Make Use of Original, High-Resolution Images
Your chances of ranking on relevant searches are greatly improved by a good user experience, and more imaginative original photographs you have, the better the experience is.
Stock photos are often overlooked by users. High-quality original photos however, help you stand out in the search results page, so show off your brand’s personality and attract more visitors to your website with those great one of a kind shots.
Images should help narrate or streamline a concept or object.
Many people are visual learners. Long blocks of text can have a greater psychological impact when there are original high quality images embedded throughout the page.
Using screenshots in your blog articles, posts, and landing pages is another approach to add value, communicate your story, and improve the product. Screenshots are a wonderful way to convey your message, especially if you’re discussing a complex topic.
Finally, the purpose of an image is to compliment the orignal content on your website, and to break up the block of written words. A web page with strategically placed photos in more engaging than the viewer looking at a huge block of text.
Make sure there are no copyright conflicts with the image files you choose to use. If Getty, Shutterstock, DepositFiles, or another stock image supplier owns an image you use and you don’t have a permission to use it, you could be facing a costly lawsuit.
If you have truly breached any copyright concerns, you may be issued a notification under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If the owner of a piece of content notices it on your site, they may issue a DMCA Takedown, which you must comply with.
You can use Google Images to filter results based on whether or not they are available for reuse. These photographs aren’t always the best, but they can assist you in locating a free image.
The File Types of Images
You should be aware of the file type you’re working with. You’ll almost always use a JPEG for optimization concerns.
When compressed or scaled, a JPEG image offers the finest possibilities for keeping image quality. They use a variety of colors, shadows, and patterns to create a high-resolution image, and they are the most common picture form in the digital world.
JPEG creates high-quality images in small file sizes thanks to its ability to be reduced significantly.
One disadvantage of JPEGs is that data can be lost during compression. This could mean that, depending on your settings that the visual quality may deteriorate. Transparent backgrounds are also not supported, as they are in the GIF and PNG formats.
However, using this format is advantageous because it keeps file sizes small and is generally supported.
Best Practices in PNG
When altering or downloading files using Adobe Photoshop, a PNG image is typically used. PNG is known for its transparency and is frequently used for logo design image possessions since the image appears little but has a high resolution.
PNGs can be stored in two formats: PNG-8 and PNG-24. The PNG-8 file type is limited to 256 colors, whereas the PNG-24 file type will deliver a considerably higher quality screen, but at the cost of a larger file size, which may slow down the page’s performance.
As you continue to resave your photographs, you’ll see that PNGs do not degrade.
Use the smallest file size possible without sacrificing quality
The biggest cause of delayed loading times is typically images. If you want to speed up your website, try reducing the file sizes of your photographs by downsizing and compressing them. This is an effective strategy that makes a world of difference.
Your image’s entire size should not be much greater than you actually need it to be (i.e. the width of your web page or article).
The “Save for Web” feature in Adobe Photoshop is one of the finest ways to reduce file size without sacrificing quality. Images might be large files, but that isn’t always a good thing when it comes to the user experience. Huge file sizes might have a direct impact on your SERP and image search rankings.
Photoshop
Before saving the image, utilize Photoshop to downsize it, resulting in a smaller file size for improved user experience. You can decide to use a variety of image quality presets in Photoshop, ranging from 1.38 MB to 86k. In most cases, a setting in the middle will have little effect on resolution or page load time.
When you don’t have Photoshop, you can use online compression tools to resize the image without losing quality.
There are numerous programs available for resizing and compressing your photographs. PicMonkey and Pixlr, in addition to Photoshop, are two of the best tools for both beginners and advanced users.
Adding subtitles to your photographs is a best practice for image optimization.
The caption is the text that displays below the image, usually in a gray box, and describes what you see in the image. While the words in your post may not be read, the text beneath your image has a good chance of being read.
Captions are useful since not all photos are currently understood, and the feature gives context to the image, making it easier for search engines to interpret (aside from your alt text). According to Poynter Research, captions receive up to 16 percent higher readership than text, indicating that they are essential to readers.
Some photographs can be used without a caption, however captions add value. Just remember not to push a caption when one isn’t required.
When an internet browser can’t render an image correctly, alt tags provide a text replacement. The alt attribute, like the title, is used to describe the contents of an image file.
You’ll see an image box with the alt tag in the upper left corner if the image won’t load. Assemble them to fit the image and make it meaningful.
In Closing
If you want to find out more about the latest in how to rank better on the SERP, the experts at PushLeads would love to connect with you, to give you a FREE consultation! We WANT to help your business Be Visible & Grow!
Thank you for stopping by today. If you want to know more about what exactly an SEO expert is, and what we can do to help your business grow, you might enjoy reading: What is an SEO Specialist?
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