At some point, you may be wondering if your blog post or article needs an image or not. Our answer: a resounding “Yes!” Images bring life to your article, plus, it contributes to your site’s search engine optimization.
For those who build and manage websites, getting to the first page of search engine results has been THE goal. Google Image searches are a very popular type of search, so it is always a good idea to give your site a better opportunity of being discovered in the search engines. The images will do the ‘talking’ on your behalf, and you wouldn’t be overly reliant on text to showcase how great your website is.
Visual content is equally as important as the message contained in your website. From the moment a visitor arrives in your site, the images set the tone. It gives support and commentary on the content surrounding it, and helps deepen the connection between brands and consumers.
Let us at D6 Interactive, your Dallas SEO company, give you valuable tips on how to optimize your images for SEO.
- Size
Think about the weight of the image file. Did you know that unnecessarily large image files contribute to slowing down a website’s page load speed? Don’t forget to use a reliable image resizing tool to cut your images down to a reasonable size.
- Color
Color remains to be an important consideration in website design. Take some time to think about what the colors in your images could mean to your target audience. Do this before you make further optimization in your website.
- Type
Use file types that will frame your images in the best light and compress well. JPGs are acceptable for a majority of photos, while PNGs are your best bet for illustrations.
- Content
It is always a good idea to use original images, instead of stock photography. Stock photos may demonstrate a lack of creativity, while images that you have taken yourself will make you stand out from the crowd. You could also run the risk of featuring the same images that your competitor site uses.
Your images should be unique, just as your written content is. It is also important that your images matches your site’s content. Relevancy is essential to success in search.
- Metadata
It is important that your images are marked up properly so that Google can match users’ search queries to your visual content. This means giving accurate, concise, and clear labels for:
- Title text
- File name
- Caption, if relevant
- Alt text
When choosing images for your website, you should also consider where else they may show up online, and how you can best use image SEO to leverage these opportunities. The importance of images in SEO and web design is growing – from enabling users to find more products or services from image search, to supporting user experience.
For more information on how you can leverage image optimization for your SEO efforts, feel free to get in touch with us at D6 Interactive, your Dallas SEO experts.
