Most people know how important it is to make text content suitable for search engines, but they forget about images. Images aren’t just pretty—they can help bring more visitors to your site, make people stay longer, and even help your site show up higher in search results.
To make images work for you, it’s not just about making them smaller in size. You also need to give them clear names, use alt text to describe what’s in the image, and make sure they load quickly.
In this comprehensive guide, you will learn the important aspects of SEO for images, including tips, tricks, and strategies for optimizing visual content to boost your search rankings.
With time image optimization for SEO has become an important factor due to growing image-based platforms like Pinterest, Instagram and Google Images. Image optimization helps improve your search rankings. Moreover it also contributes to brand identity by ensuring your images align with your business’s aesthetic and messaging.
Understanding SEO for Images & Its Benefits
Image SEO, or Image Search Engine Optimization, involves optimizing images on your website so that search engines can easily crawl, index, and understand them. This helps your images rank higher in search results, making your website more discoverable.
Benefits of Image SEO
- Improved User Experience: Optimized images load faster, providing a better user experience on both desktop and mobile devices.
- Higher Search Engine Rankings: Images that are properly optimized rank better on Google and other search engines, helping your website gain more visibility.
- Increased Traffic: Appearing in Google’s Image Search can drive significant traffic to your website.
- Enhanced Brand Identity: Well-chosen and optimized images can reflect your brand’s message, building brand consistency and identity.
- Boosted Conversions: Quality, optimized images can drive engagement and boost conversions, especially for eCommerce websites.
Where Can Images Appear in Search?
One of the key benefits of image SEO is that it helps your images show up in search engine results pages (SERPs), driving valuable traffic and clicks from users.
Many users start by going directly to Google Images to find what they’re looking for. Optimizing your images can help them appear in these search results, attracting more visibility.
Additionally, Google Lens receives billions of searches each month. This app allows users to perform visual searches by uploading or taking photos with their camera, leading to results like this:
Google also frequently features images in regular search results. These image results are good for catching users’ attention and increasing click-through rates.
How to Create Valuable Images
The first step in creating an SEO friendly visual is working on images that can enhance the content pieces of your website.
For instance:
- Photos can highlight products and break up large blocks of text.
- Graphic designs can help communicate abstract concepts.
- Charts and graphs are great for presenting complex data.
- Icons improve website navigation and user experience.
- Logos reinforce your brand identity.
- Screenshots offer clear instructions and examples.
Whenever possible, create your own original images instead of relying on stock photos. Unique images provide additional value to users and give Google more incentive to rank your content.
If you do use images created by others, ensure you have the required permission to avoid any copyright issues.
Tips For Image Optimization
Optimizing images requires several elements working together. Here are some key aspects of image optimization to ensure your images are SEO-friendly:
1. Image Size
Image size directly impacts website load time, and load speed. It is a critical ranking factor for SEO. Large images can slow down your site, negatively affecting user experience and search engine rankings. To ensure fast load times, compress your images using tools like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or Photoshop. Aim for an optimal balance between image quality and size.
2. File Name
Google uses image file names to better understand what images depict. So, it’s best practice to give your images descriptive (yet concise) file names.
For example:
❌ Generic Names
- IMG_1234.jpg
- DSC0001.png
❌ Unrelated to Content
- random-pic.jpg
- photo1.png
❌ No Keywords
- pic0005.jpg
- imagefile.jpg
✅ Descriptive and Relevant
- sunset-over-beach.jpg (for a travel blog about beach destinations)
- vegan-chocolate-cake.jpg (for a food blog sharing a recipe)
✅ Incorporates Keywords
- best-running-shoes-2024.png (for an e-commerce site selling running shoes)
- yoga-poses-beginners.jpg (for a fitness blog about yoga)
✅ Clear and Specific
- modern-office-chair-black.jpg (for a furniture store)
- hiking-trail-mountain-view.jpg (for an outdoor adventure blog)
3. Save Format
Choosing the correct file format is essential for image quality and speed. Here’s a quick breakdown of common formats:
- JPEG: Best for photographs and images with many colours.
- PNG: Ideal for graphics, logos, and colours requiring transparency.
- SVG: A scalable vector graphic format, great for logos and icons.
- WebP: A newer format that offers high-quality images with smaller file sizes, ideal for web use.
Note: Avoid using spaces when you write a file name. Google recommends separating words with hyphens.
4. Add Descriptive Alt Text
Descriptive alt text is essential for SEO. By providing clear and specific descriptions of images, you help search engines understand the content, improving your site’s visibility in search results.
Additionally, alt text enables visually impaired users to comprehend the images through screen readers. The guidelines for descriptive alt text will enhance user experience. Moreover it will also boost your website’s search engine performance.
5. Mobile-Friendly Images
With mobile traffic now outpacing desktop, ensuring your images are mobile-friendly is crucial. Use responsive images that automatically adjust to different screen sizes, ensuring your content looks great on all devices. The srcset attribute in HTML allows you to serve different image sizes based on the user’s screen resolution.
6. Unique Images
Unique, high-quality images help your website stand out and build a strong brand identity. Refrain from overusing stock photos, as they can make your website feel generic and may not resonate with your audience. Custom images that align with your brand’s voice and aesthetic will make a lasting impact.
7. Structured Data
Implementing structured data (also known as schema markup) on your images can help search engines better understand and index them. For example, adding Product schema for images on eCommerce sites helps Google recognise and display product images in rich snippets. Structured data also increases the likelihood of your images appearing in Google’s visual search results.
8. Sitemap
Including images in your sitemap is a critical step to ensure search engines crawl and index all your images. If you already have an XML sitemap, include the URLs of your images. If not, you can create a separate image sitemap to make it easier for search engines to find and index your media files.
9. Compress Image
Compression reduces the file size of images without compromising their quality. Lossy compression removes some data to achieve a smaller file size, while lossless compression reduces file size without losing any data. Use tools like ImageOptim or TinyPNG to compress images before uploading them to your website.
10. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can significantly improve your website’s load times by serving your images from multiple servers located closer to the user’s geographic location. Using a CDN will help you provide a faster, more seamless experience for your visitors, especially if you have a global audience.
11. Enable Browser Caching
Browser caching allows a user’s browser to store your images locally. This reduces the time it takes to load the images on subsequent visits. By enabling caching, you can improve the load time of your pages and reduce server load, ultimately benefiting your SEO.
12. Apply On-Page SEO Best Practices
Alongside image optimization, don’t forget about applying on-page SEO best practices to your overall website content. Use relevant SEO header tags (H1, H2, etc.) for your page titles and subheadings, and ensure your content is engaging and keyword-optimized.
13. Open Graph Meta Tags
Open Graph meta tags help control how your images appear when shared on social media platforms. For example, use the og:image tag to specify which image appears as a pear when users share your content on Facebook or Twitter. Properly implementing these tags helps with social sharing and can drive additional traffic to your site.
How to Check Your Site’s Images
- Google Search Console: Use Google Search Console to monitor any crawl errors related to images. It will show you if any images aren’t indexed or have issues.
- PageSpeed Insights: Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a useful tool to analyze your site’s performance and gives actionable recommendations for improving image optimization, such as compressing oversized images or serving next-gen formats like WebP.
- GTmetrix: This tool helps identify areas of your site that may be slowing down due to image issues, including large file sizes and slow-loading elements.
- Image SEO Tools: Specialized tools like SEO Image Optimizer and ImageOptim allow you to scan and optimize images across your website efficiently.
How to Check Your Images’s ALT Tag
You can check whether your images are missing alt text with Semrush’s Site Audit tool.
Open the tool and follow the prompts to start your audit.
Then, go to the “Issues” report and search for “alt attribute” in the search bar. To find the “# images don’t have alt attributes” warning.
Click “# images” to see the affected images.
If you don’t want to add alt text to an image because it’s decorative, click the eye icon to hide the result.
Otherwise, go to your website and add the image alt text. (The right way to do this depends on your website’s setup. Speak to a developer if you need help.)
You can then re-run your site audit to check everything’s working properly.
I am text block. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.
Conclusion
Optimizing your images for SEO is a crucial step in improving both user experience and search engine rankings. By following the tips we’ve discussed in this guide—such as optimizing image size, using descriptive file names, implementing alt tags, and leveraging structured data and sitemaps—you can ensure that your images are fully optimized for search engines and users alike.
As more users rely on visual searches and platforms like Google Images for discovery, it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve and optimize your images for better visibility and engagement. Whether you’re an eCommerce store or a blogger, image optimization is an ongoing process that requires regular maintenance.
If you need help optimizing your images and improving your site’s SEO, consider partnering with a professional SEO experts agency. They can help guide you through the process, offering tailored solutions that align with your brand’s goals.