I hope you have your Website if you are reading this blog. In case if not and you are in some confusion whether to go with a blog or Website for your business, you must read this article where I have explained the purpose of both.
Fine. You might have heard that the images you use in your blogs play a vital role in SEO.
Yup. Optimizing Images for the Websites are mandatory in every part of your Website. First, Let’s see
What is Image Optimization?
Image Optimization is nothing but optimizing the size of your images based on the requirement and the place where you fix your images.
Now let’s see how to optimize your images for Website and SEO,
- Choose the right Dimension of the images according to the placement.
- Reduce the File size of the images before uploading or use any plugin
- Choose the required File Type
- Optimize Images for SEO
- Choose the right keywords in the file name of Images
- Use Keywords in Alt Tags of all the images
1. Choose the right Dimension of the images according to the Placement.
You can make images in different dimensions. Before downloading from your editing tool, check the placement of your images on your Website.
Images may be used as banner images, featured images, in a blog post, and anywhere on your Website.
Every placement has different dimensions.
For Example, the Dimension of the Featured Images of your blog is 1200 x 628 pixels.
And the Dimension of the images inside your blog post should match your blog post’s content width.
Hence the Dimension varies according to the placement. Whatever editing tool you use, such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, etc., you can fix the Dimension and download your outputs on your Website.
2. Reduce the File size of the images before uploading or use any WordPress plugin to optimize images for Websites
Page loading time plays a significant role in SEO since the user experience depends on your page loading speed.
If your page takes time to load, the user might lose their patience, and there is a lot of chance to leave your Website. Google considers your page loading time as one of the ranking factors in its algorithm.
Hence it would help if you worked on page loading time in every aspect of your Website. Optimizing the size of the images is one of the factors in this.
Larger the image file Size, Longer the page loading time.
So you can reduce the size of your image file while downloading from your editing tool. Preferable size of the image for the WordPress website is below 500kb, and I suggest you go with below 200kb.
Alternatively, you can use the wordpress plugin WP Smush to Optimize and Compress your Images. This plugin helps you to reduce your work since it reduces the size of your images automatically by itself.
Note: I use Canva, an online tool to create and edit my Images.
3. Choose the required File Type
There are different file types available for the images, such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, etc., Each type has its features, and you can use any type as per the need.
Usually, PNG file types are larger with good quality, but if you see a JPEG type, the file size can be reduced as required with the same quality. Hence I prefer to use JPEG file type for all my blogs and websites instead of PNG.
It will not impact the loading speed of your page if you have optimized the images.
Most of your editing tools allow you to download the files in the required types.
4. Optimize Images for SEO
You may think Search Engines usually crawl your websites using text keywords, but it is not a fact, and search Engines also crawl the images on your Website.
As you know very well, You have to use relevant keywords in your Website to rank on search engines.
How to select Relevant Keywords?
Though it is a vast topic, I will give a brief introduction about keywords. Keywords are used in any part of your Website, which helps search engines to rank your Website higher.
It would help if you did some research on keywords for which your users are looking for answers, and based on that; you can choose relevant keywords under your topic.
You can use those keywords in your images and optimize them for SEO.
How to Use Keywords in Images?
There are two usual ways you can use the chosen keywords as below.
5. Choose the right keywords in the file name of Images
Search Engines crawl the images in your Website using keywords so you can add those keywords to the file name of your images.
Instead of giving generic names such as Image 1, Image Edited, etc., it would be better to use the name of your product/services directly. For Example, If you are selling mobile phones, you can use the name of your mobiles such as Vivo 1902 black, Vivo 1902 Blue, etc.,
It helps search engines to crawl your pages.
6. Use Keywords in Alt Tags of all the images
Alt Tags is the option you will find while uploading the images to your site, where you can add your relevant and chosen keywords.
Those keywords should describe your image wherein your keywords are included.
Alt Tags are the Text alternative to your images. When the images are not loaded properly to your users, your user can see the text added in Alt Tags so that they will understand the purpose of those images.
It helps users experience on your Website, and in turn, it adds value to your Website in terms of SEO.
However, remember that don’t stuff all your keywords in a single image. File name and alt tags should describe your image wherein you are adding relevant keywords.
Over-stuffing of keywords doesn’t help you in terms of SEO.
Wrap-Up
In this article, You have seen the various ways to optimize images for websites and to optimize images for SEO in general.
Still, are you feeling that image optimization is a tough job?
No worries. We, Lime Fresh, the best digital marketing company, create Websites, Social Media Profiles, Social Media Engagement, SEO, E-Mail Marketing, etc., for you/your business.
We are ready to support you with dedication if you need any support in this. You can contact us by writing to this mail id. mail@limefreshness.com
I hope this article helps you to know how to optimize images for your websites.
We would like to know your feedback in the comment box.
Thanks for reading! Hope we connect soon.
What are the important steps for optimizing images for your website?
Choose the right dimension of the images according to the placement
Reduce the file size of the images before uploading or use any WordPress plugin to optimize images
Choose the required file type
Optimize images for SEO
Choose the right keywords in the file name of images
Use Keywords in Alt Tags of all the images
How to choose the Right Keywords for Images?
Search Engine crawl the images in your Website using Keywords, so you can add those Keywords to the file name of your images.
Instead of giving generic names such as image 1, image edited, etc., it would be better to use the name of your products/services directly which helps Search Engines to crawl your pages.
Which file type is used for Optimizing Images?
There are different file types available for the images, such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, etc., Each type has its features and you can use any type as per the need.
Usually, PNG file types are larger with good quality but if you see a JPEG type ,the file size can be reduced as required with the same quality.
Hence I prefer to use JPEG file types for blogs and websites instead of PNG.