Now that you understand how important theoptimization of your ship you must cast off your moorings and test your courage and knowledge.
Though often underestimated.image enhancement in optics SEO is an important practice to increase the chances of positioning in the top results within the SERPs.
For a thousand whales! It’s not black witchcraft, I can assure you: I’ll follow you on this adventure and explain how to do it and why it’s important.
Why optimize images for SEO
First of all, you need to know that within the realm of Google sail day and night the so-called crawlers, small boats always looking for ships like yours.
Their purpose is to find, scan and index your website – i.e. put it in Google’s index – in order to position it appropriately in the SERP to respond to user searches.
In order to give you correct answers the search algorithm sort in fact, the results based on a series of analysis taking into account mainly the quality of content and their relevance with respect to the searched keyword.
If you optimize your images for SEO the higher the score they will receive and it will then be possible to hoist the flag and increase the visibility and the positioning of your sailboat, in a sea where there are so many ships.
If you are not yet convinced of the importance of this practice I have identified for you other three good reasons so perk up your ears and listen carefully. Image optimization is useful:
- to speed up and simplify the process of indexing;
- to speed up the loading of your site, in turn improving the user experience and the traffic;
- to position yourself on Google Images.
The positioning of your site is also closely related to these reasons: let’s see them together.
To speed up and simplify the indexing process
Crawlers are not able to decrypt the contents of the images so it is important to use precise optimization techniques to communicate the right information to them.
Every image of a web page is actually embedded by the image tag, abbreviated to img, which can contain several attributes:
- src – indicates the path to the image;
- alt – specifies an alternate text for the image in case it cannot be displayed;
- title – specifies, as the mouse hovers over the image, a descriptive text to the user;
To understand this better, the img tag of an image of your ship on your site might be:
< img src=”http://www.tuosito.it/tua-barca.jpg” alt=”my boat with sails hoisted” title=”the best ship on all the seas” / >
All attributes within the tag are important from an SEO perspective as they are read and displayed by crawlers to understand the content of an image.
Optimizing these attributes will allow you to simplify the work of crawlers and avoid slowing down the indexing process as they will already know which route to take.
To improve the speed of your site
One of the main causes of slow loading is the presence of images too heavy to load and not optimized for the web.
A ship too slow to reach its destination no captain would want to steer it, understand?
In addition, a slow site also discourages users who will abandon it to look elsewhere, negatively affecting your site’s ranking.
Optimizing images is important to improve and provide a user experience – user experience – fast and high quality. Allowing a longer duration of user sessions and the amount of pages they can find will also provide Google with a signal that will improve the location of the site.
To also rank on Google Images
Google Images is the web image search engine that runs parallel to the classic Google search.
Users leverage this engine to shop, find ideas and inspiration, visually learn how to do certain tasks, and more.
A properly indexed image in Google Images will be a resource that, if well positioned within the engine, will bring organic traffic Becoming a channel where users can discover your site.
In order to get them ranked within Google Images, especially in a better position, it is important to take care of SEO optimization.
In addition, having a good position also on this engine will allow you to increase the visibility of your ship also on the classic Google search, showing both your site and the images linked to it.
How to optimize images for SEO
Now open your ears wide because I have decided to share with you our secrets to optimize images in the best way possible, try not to make me regret it!
First of all you need to know that to optimize images you will have to navigate between different tools and plugins.
If after these premises you still fear to face the difficult challenge of optimization and to run aground with your ship, your ship and your crew will be grateful to you.
Resize images
Remember how image optimization can help us improve user experience?
One of the first things to do is definitely resize the image because the heavier the images are, the longer the page will take to load, making all users disappear over the horizon.
There are several tools to reduce the size of images: you can use offline tools, online tools and even plugins in the case of a CMS.
To resize the image size you will need – in almost every tool you choose – to change the length e the height, as I did with the image of my sailing ship.
You can, also, choose various units of measurement, including: pixels, percent, centimeters and more.
Use quality images
Although images should be lightweight, you still need to find the perfect balance between photo quality and page loading speed – it’s a real toss-up!
Take care of the name, title and alternate text of the image
In terms of SEO, it is important to choose a name adequate for the image: if you were to save the image of your sailing ship you could call it “the-my-sailer”, no?
The title represents the TITLE tag and is more useful to the user because it allows him to understand what the image represents or to have more details about it.
In order to create in-depth information, it is also useful the caption which acts as a description for the user.
The alternate text of an image – called the ALT attribute – is instead the fundamental key as it will provide crawlers with the information they need to understand what the image represents.
So, the goal is to allow the engine and the user to understand exactly what the content of an image is through its optimization.
Choosing the right format
An image for the web can be published in five different formats:
- tiff – less suitable format for the web as it is heavy;
- jpeg – standard format, images lose quality but are lighter;
- gif – applying a form of compression does not lose quality, the image can be animated for this is used for graphic images or small images such as icons;
- png – is used for images that require high quality, it is one of the heaviest forms because it uses a compression that does not lose information;
- webp – image format developed for the web, the goal is to allow loading as fast as possible although it will affect qualities.
Ahrr. It’s not good to confuse the stern with the bow – you have to choose the right format so you don’t become shark food!
Provide good context
The search engine can also figure out what an image represents from the text that it surrounds which is why from an SEO point of view it is important to carefully curate the text that you place above and below the image.
Imagine inserting an image about cargo ships: above and below it you wouldn’t be talking about Caribbean beaches, would you?
To sum up, there are several ways to optimize images for SEO, a very important practice that allows you to increase traffic to your site but also to improve the user experience and the positioning of your ship among the search engine results.
It may seem like a long and difficult journey, but with these tips you’ll be able to face it in the best way until the next destination.
