How To Optimize Your Images for SEO

Optimizing your images for SEO is as important as investing in professional photography or designing quality graphics for your brand. After all, what good is an image if no one can find it? Today, we are going to discuss 4 ways you can make the images on your website searchable and SEO-friendly to drive organic traffic to your website.

1. Choose the right file name.

In order for your image to draw traffic to your website, Google must be able to identify what’s in the image. Let’s say, for example, that you have an image that features a couple from a beach wedding in Miami. Your image file name should not be:

IMG_3456.jpg
Gina-and-Tyler.jpg
Wedding3456.jpg

Instead, use 3-4 searchable, descriptive keywords like beach, wedding and Miami and separate them with hyphens, so Google recognizes that they are different words. An SEO-optimized file name would be Wedding-Couple-Miami-Beach.jpg.

2. Resize your images.

Google ranks slow websites poorly because they do not provide their visitors an enjoyable user experience. And what’s one of the main culprits for slow site load times? Large image sizes.

Platforms like Squarespace automatically resize your images for optimal display, but other platforms may not. Before you upload your image onto your website, make sure you resize the image according to your destination platform’s recommended size dimensions (we’ve compiled a handy list here!) in Photoshop or your image editing software of choice.

If you don’t have access to Photoshop or image editing software, use an online compressor tool like ImageOptim or Pixlr.

3. Use alternative text.

Unlike image file names, alternative text can be longer than 4 keywords and include branded keywords. It is one of the main ways in which Google indexes the images on your website, even if the user has image display options turned off or the image does not load properly.

Though stuffing your images with too many keywords – or “keyword stuffing” – is not recommended, we do recommend getting a little more descriptive with your alternative text. Instead of Wedding-Couple-Miami-Beach.jpg, for example, you may want to enter “couple running on beach at Miami wedding.”

4. Choose the correct file format.

Most images on the web are one of three file formats: JPEGs, PNGs, and GIFs. As we mentioned previously, Google ranks slow websites poorly, so we want to make sure that we are using the optimal file format for our images without losing image quality.

JPEGs are the smallest file type, and are generally recommended for photographs. Though they are great for SEO due to its small data size, they are also susceptible to quality loss depending on the display size. For logos, line drawings, and graphics with text, we recommend using PNG. Finally, use GIFs for moving images.