Image Optimization in SEO: Optimizing images for search engines
On-page Optimization and Image optimization are the basic steps for your SEO campaign. As the Search Engines are getting smarter and more intelligent, the process of achieving a good search ranking is getting more complex. There are many factors that contribute to showing up well in search engine rankings, one of the most important of them is the on page optimization. More over, if you take your own screen-shots or create your own images,
Image SEO optimization is one of the building blocks of on page optimization. Images are a strong visual component of a webpage. They say that a ‘Picture is better than a thousand words’.
If used properly they can transmit your message in just a single glance while a careless use of images can destroy your whole impression.
The most important Image Optimization factors include the alt tag, title tag, image size, image name and image linking.
Image optimization for SEO Techniques
1. Image relevancy
Image relevancy is important when it comes to image optimization for SEO. An image of a train on a page related to Ferrari will do you no good. I know its common sense but this step is so important that I just can’t miss it out.
2.Alt Tag
The Alt tag is probably the most important image optimization factor. Alt stands for alternate. The text in the alt tag is displayed in place of the image if the image can not be shown or is taking too long to load.
A good practice for the ALT tag is to keep your alt tags short but descriptive. Fill your alt tags with search engine friendly information but don’t try to go too far. For example, the alt tag for a picture of a birthday party should be something like this: alt=”my son ronin second birthday party”.
3.Image Size and Hosting
Image size is a very crutial factor for your overall user experience. Images can make your page heavy. Put up a webpage that takes more than 10 seconds to load, and your users will escape faster than you can say “back button”. After the recent Panda update, the loading time of pages has become a vital part for your SEO ranking as the total time of visit has become more important as a SEO algorithm. So its important to keep your images low in bytes.
Image hosting is another important factor especially when it comes to driving traffic from Google Image Search. The factors on which the images for Google Image Search are chosen is kept hidden but some say that image hosting is one of the important factors for the choice. Tag and image linking
4. Title Tag And Image Linking
Images are eye-catching so are perfect for linking. But proper image linking techniques can offer even better results. One of the basic tips for image linking is to avoid linking your images directly. Always use relevant anchor texts whenever linking your images. This is even more effective for your SEO when embedding images in a guest post or other pages intended to get a link back to your site.