Creating engaging SEO content considering various factors. In particular, diverse methods are needed to enhance the completeness and visual quality of the content while simultaneously providing interesting content. Did you know that image optimization is one of the most important methods among these?
Image optimization is one of the important SEO elements that marketers and content creators must carefully consider. Therefore, today I will explain how to perform image optimization, introduce easy and effective tips, and suggest websites that help with the process.
Image optimization
Images facilitate intuitive understanding and provide visual information that is difficult to convey to users through text alone. Image optimization improves a webpage's SEO, helping it achieve higher rankings in search results. This allows for easier exposure to target users, driving high-quality traffic to the site.
So, what factors should you look into for SEO image optimization?
Points to Consider for Image Optimization
1) Setting SEO-friendly image file names
When uploading images, the file name plays an important role in SEO.
Include keywords related to the image's content in the file name to help search engines easily understand the image. Above all, Google extracts information about the image's subject from page content, including captions and titles . Please note that if possible, it is best to place images near relevant text and on pages related to the image's subject !
2) Check image extension format
Image formats significantly impact website loading times and the overall user experience. Generally, users select and use an appropriate format from JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Please note that Google Search supports image formats including BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG! It is also a good idea to match the file name extension to the file format.
3) Inserting images using HTML image elements
Using standard HTML image elements allows crawlers to find and process images. On Google, HTML <img> element(<picture> It parses the image (even if it is included in other elements such as the element) to create an index of the image, but it does not create an index of the CSS image.
✅ Good example
<img src = “pizza.jpg” alt = “포테이토 피자” />
❎ Bad example
<div stlye = “background-image:url(pizza.jpg)”> 포테이토 피자 </div>
4) Optimizing for responsive images
Designing responsive web pages provides a better user experience because users can access the page from various types of devices. It would also be better to optimize images to match the responsive design, automatically adjusting their size to fit all types of device screens, wouldn't it?
A webpage is an img element Specify responsive images using the element or the srcset attribute. However, some browsers and crawlers do not recognize these attributes. It is always recommended to specify an alternative URL using the src attribute<picture>
the srcset attribute to specify different versions of the same image for different screen sizes.
<img srcset="maine-coon-nap-320w.jpg 320w, maine-coon-nap-480w.jpg 480w, maine-coon-nap-800w.jpg 800w" sizes="(max-width: 320px) 280px, (max-width: 480px) 440px, 800px" src="maine-coon-nap-800w.jpg" alt="A watercolor illustration of a maine coon napping leisurely in front of a fireplace">
5) Use an image sitemap
An image sitemap is an XML file containing a list of URLs for images on a website.
This file helps search engines better understand the structure and content of your website. By submitting an image sitemap, search engines can crawl and index your website's images more quickly and effectively. This allows you to achieve better results in image search results.
6) Optimizing for SafeSearch
SafeSearch is a Google user account setting that allows you to specify whether to display, blur, or block sexually explicit images, videos, and websites in Google search results. It enables Google to analyze the characteristics of a site and apply SafeSearch filters to it when appropriate.
Setting image alternative text is also important!
Image alternative text – Image Alt tag (Alt tag)
Image alternative text is text that is displayed instead of an image when the image is not visible on a webpage. This text describes the content of the image to users of screen readers, and search engine crawlers also use this text to understand the image's content.
One of the easiest things to overlook when creating content is inserting images and setting appropriate alt text. Google uses computer vision algorithms and page content along with alt text to identify the subject of an image. Additionally, image alt text is important because it can be used as anchor text when using the image as a link.
The Importance of Image Alternative Text
- Web accessibility improvement: Helps visually impaired people using screen readers understand the content of images.
- SEO Improvement: Since search engines process information based on text, Alt Text helps improve webpage SEO by providing image content to search engines.
- Addressing image loading issues: You can provide image information to the user when an image fails to load.
Tips for Writing Effective Image Alternative Text
- Descriptive and accurate: You must write text that accurately conveys the content and intent of the image.
- Keyword Usage: To improve SEO, you must include relevant keywords appropriately. However, you should avoid keyword stepping, which involves using keywords repeatedly.
- Keep it short and concise: You must write text that explains the image simply and clearly, without making it too long.
Easy and fast! Effective image optimization site
For those of you worried that "optimizing images will take a considerable amount of time in addition to brainstorming and planning new content," I would like to introduce websites that help you optimize images easily and simply. If you utilize the sites introduced today, you will be able to relieve that concern.
1) Reduce image size without loss of quality – Image size compression
If images are too large, the loading speed of the page in which they are used will slow down. Compressing images can increase page loading speed and improve the user's browsing experience.
In this case, it is important to compress to an appropriate size, as reducing the file size too much can significantly degrade image quality.
💡 Image compression sites
· iLoveimg
· tinypng
· ImageOptim (Mac only)
2) Adjusting image size
If the images included in the content are too large, the page loading time will be prolonged. Therefore, it is important to place images of an appropriate size, ensuring they are neither too large nor too small.
💡 Image resizing site
SEO image optimization is one of the key factors that helps drive high traffic to our website. It would be beneficial to use the considerations mentioned above as a checklist to optimize your images for SEO. By reviewing the image optimization elements of your current content and making improvements based on this checklist, you can create even more attractive and high-quality SEO content.😊
*source
- Google Image Search Engine Optimization Best Practices https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images?hl=ko
