Optimizing Your Images to Improve Your SEO
A picture really is worth a thousand words. But sometimes it needs a little help.
How often do you look at images in Google Search?
I just switched to a new bookkeeping software and its set up a bit differently from my old one. I was trying to figure out how to do something, so of course I went to do a search. I saw a few pages, but realized quickly that what would really help me was an image showing me exactly how to handle my question.
And there I found the solution! Yay!
In the end, I did end up going to a couple of websites that I found in the image search. I wanted to read the information on the page because their images were so helpful.
And that’s what we all want.
What is image optimization?
Optimizing your images means that you are making it easier for search engines (like Google and Bing) to find your images and “read” them (more on that later). Optimization includes things like file type and size, as well as alt text and file names.
Why is image optimization important to SEO?
Image search now accounts for over 20% of all searches in Google. Optimizing your images can help to get them ranked higher in search, bringing your website more traffic.
How?
Google wants to send people to website with good user experience. They like sites that are easy to navigate & load quickly.
Image optimization helps with:
Speed: Images can be one of the big culprits in slowing down your site. By formatting your images correctly you speed your site up making both Google and your visitors happier.
Bounce Rate: Image optimization can also help with your bounce rate. A faster site with great images helps to keep your visitors engaged on your site, lowering your bounce rate. This helps your search engine ranking.
Accessibility & Visibility: It also makes your site more accessible to visually impaired visitors who use screen readers, while at the same time giving search engines more information about your images and your website.
4 tips to optimize your images
1) Choose the right image file type
PNG, JPG, GIF, SVG or WebP, what the heck is the difference between these image file types?
Choosing the right file type can seem like picking the letters of your name out of the alphabet soup (come on, we’ve all done it), but it really does make it difference in the size and clarity of your images. So, it’s important to pick the right format for your images.
Currently, Squarespace only supports PNG, JPG and GIF (though I’m hoping for WebP at some point), so I’ll narrow it down and tell you about these three formats.
PNG: I tend to use PNG for logos and other images that have text* as it gives high quality, crisp images. Those crisp images come with a large file size though, so I only use PNG where it is needed.
PNG is also the right choice when you need a transparent background.
*It’s generally better not to have the text as part of your image as search engines will not be able to “see” the text (read the next section for more info). I use text on my images for logos or images for social media only.
GIF: This is a great format to create animated images, but use it sparingly on your website. Animated GIFs tend to be very large. I mostly use GIF to created animated images for social media.
JPG or JPEG: Large photos or banner images? JPG is the format that you want to use for these. It gives you good quality images with smaller file sizes. It can’t be used for transparency (images will have a white background) and isn’t great for things with text.
2) Give your images the correct name
Search engines can’t actually read or see your images. There’s no one working for Google who is just looking at images and classifying them for search. So, it’s up to you to do the work of making your images “readable”.
This starts with giving your image the correct file name.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve received images with a name like image_0001.jpg. This means nothing to me (and sometimes makes it difficult to know where to put the image on a website), and nothing to the search engines.
Instead, rename the file with a description of what is in the image. You can even add some keywords there if they make sense.
Naming best practices
Keep your name short. No more than 5 words
Separate each word with a hyphen
Make the name descriptive
No keyword stuffing!
image10001.jpg x
woman-using-laptop.jpg ✓
3) Reduce your image file size
A website with lots of pictures is much more interesting (and generally prettier) than a big wall of text. However, images can really slow down a website making it take longer to load.
Website visitors have a finite amount of time that they’re willing to wait, so a website that takes long to load can drive people away from your website.
We definitely want images on our web pages, so we have to find a way to make them load more quickly. We do that by reducing the image file size with two methods: resizing and compressing.
Resizing your images
Pictures taken with your camera or downloaded from stock photo sites can often be over 6000px wide, but that size isn’t necessary for your website.
Here are some general guidelines for your image sizes:
Banner or full width images: 2000-2500px wide
Other website images: 1000-1500px wide
Compressing your images
Squarespace recommends that your images are under 500KB, so you may have to go further than just resizing.
There are a bunch of tools that you can use for compression. I used Adobe Photoshop and I’ve used the plugin Smush on Wordpress websites. You can also use tinyjpg.com or compressjpeg.com.
*Make sure you don’t resize or compress your images too much. You always want to make sure your image looks good – not pixelated or stretched.
4) Add Alt Text
Will your webpage make sense if your image doesn’t load? What if a visually impaired person is using a screen reader to access your site or if a search engine is “viewing” your page.
In any of these scenarios, your image isn’t being seen. So, you need to have alt text or a description for your image.
Google says it uses alt text to help identify your page content so it’s important for SEO as well.
You can add a little more detail in the alt tag than in your file name but keep it relevant.
Alt text best practices
Write in phrases with spaces between the words
Use 10-15 words
Use relevant keywords, but no keyword stuffing!
If you are just getting started with image optimization, the easiest thing to try is adding alt-text or even adding some captions to your text. It will immediately make your site more accessible and give your SEO a boost. Then, as you add new images to your website, make sure to use the other tips to make them optimized for SEO.
