Not everyone knows the basic concepts about how to do image optimization for SEO. They just upload images and make them dead on their websites.
We thought to make them alive and hence started writing on this topic to educate them on how they can optimize their website’s images and take benefits.
SEO Image optimization is the process of maximizing the visibility and click-through rate of your website in Google Images.
To make it short SEO Image Optimization is to increase the number of people who will pin, save or share your images on Pinterest, Tumblr, or other social networks as well as those who will visit your site from a Google image search.
Wouldn’t it be good if you could take all the images on your website, have them optimized for SEO purposes, and then send them to Google Images so they rank higher in search results?
Well, I searched long and hard for how to do image optimization for SEO but couldn’t find a single piece of software that did this.
There were many image optimizers out there, but none of them could do what I wanted – send images to Google Images for ranking purposes. So, I decided to write about how to do image optimization for SEO.
Table of Contents
How to do Image Optimization for SEO- 10 SEO Techniques
If you want to optimize your images and drive traffic & backlinks to your site, you should implement the following things.
1. Relevant Image –
The image you choose should be relevant to your article. For example, if the post is about making a website using WordPress, then select an image of a computer with software like WordPress.
This helps in two ways. Firstly, it makes your images more relevant to targeted or LSI keywords, and secondly, it spreads link juice across the relevant websites.
2. Alternate Text (Alt Text) –
This is the text that appears when you hover over an image. Â It is also used by Google to understand the contents of your image. So, make sure you use your target keywords in the alternate text for your images.
3. File Name –
The filename of your image should contain your target keywords. This helps Googlebot to know the contents of your images better.
This step is to make sure that your images are properly named. Instead of using a generic name like “photo1.jpg” or “img_1234.png” give your image a descriptive name such as “orange-juice-recipe.jpg” or “SEO-Tips-infographic.png
4. File Size –
The file size plays an important role in ranking factors of Google Images, so you should make sure yours are small yet high quality.
5. Image Resolution –
Make sure you upload images with the maximum possible resolution. Â This also needs to be of the highest quality possible.
6. Backlinks –
You should submit images to directories like Google Images, Bing images, Flickr, etc. so that these directories start showing your images in search results.
7. Social Bookmarks –
The more popular social sites you are active on, the better is your chance of getting more traffic from these sites. So, make sure you bookmark images on all popular social media sites.
8. Image SEO Tools –
Use free tools like imagify or paid tools like Photo Reputation to optimize your images and drive traffic & backlinks to your site faster.
9. Content around the Image –
You should surround your images with contextual and keyword-rich content.
10. Captions –
Use captions to add more information about the image.
Final Note –
No matter how good your images are, if your site is not properly optimized for SEO, you will not get the desired results.
Make sure you follow all the steps in this article to achieve better rankings in Google Images and more traffic to your website.
Do you like how to do image optimization for SEO? Share it on your favorite social media channels by using the share buttons below. You can also read another interesting blog on What Is Link Building In SEO & What Are The Benefits Of Building Links? and share your views with us.