Effective SEO Image Optimization
All of us know that search engines prefer websites with optimized pictures. Such websites attract new users – who are searching by images. If you ignore optimization, it can lead to the incorrect displaying of the website and lowering its ranking positions. In this article, we’ll teach you how to archive the perfect SEO image optimization with the Clearfy plugin.
Image Indexing
Before uploading any pictures, keep in mind that search engines index unique images only. However, it won’t help you if the website elements don’t follow the rules:
- The robots.txt file must have opened indexation of pages with images. Otherwise, images won’t be indexed.
- The same applies to images. To allow image indexation, create a special rule in robots.txt.
If your pages are not indexing and you don’t know how to fix it, check out this article, where we’ve discussed this problem.
Image Formats
- Search engines recommend using JPEG, PNG, and GIF;
- If a picture is small or animated, better choose GIF instead.
- If image quality is your highest priority, use PNG. But keep in mind that PNG images load slower. Make sure to check if it works correctly.
- Search engines don’t recommend using BMP and TIFF formats.
- If you are not sure what format to choose or just don’t care, use JPG.
If that sounds interesting, check out TOP-5 Reasons Why Images Slow Down Your WordPress Website.
Image Size
It’s pretty obvious: the smaller the image – the faster it loads. The same applies to pages. Users are happy, search engines rank your website higher – everyone is happy.
There are two ways to set up image size:
From WordPress
Use the WordPress image editor to set up image width x height.
From Certain Attributes
If you didn’t succeed with the image editor try to set up the image size via CMS. You can edit image properties using two attributes: width and height. Open the content editor, select the necessary image, switch from Visual to the Text mode and change attributes.
Example:
<img src=”landscape.jpg” width=”411” height=”242”>
Every once in a while, every website owner faces optimization problems. Soon, the website owners realize that SEO image optimization enhances performance. And Clearfy can help with that.
Open Settings => Clearfy menu.
Go to Image Optimizer. All work is done there here.
Press Start.
Latin Characters In The Title
Start with defining understandable URLs. If you haven’t set it up before, now it’s a great time to start. Once it’s done, translate your website and images to the Latin characters. This way you won’t have any display issues of images.
A detailed tutorial with the solution is here.
The File Name
The perfect SEO image optimization says that there shouldn’t be any spam or a random set of symbols in the image title.
— For Corporative Resources
Examples of the incorrect file names:
buy-starwars-merchandise-cheap.png
– obvious spam;
merchandise5621558.jpg
– less informative naming;
IMG632584.png
– non-informative naming.
Examples of the good file names:
adidas-sneakers-blue-64.jpg;
adidas-sneakers-blue-side.jpg.
— For Promo Websites
Examples of the incorrect file names:
st.pete-cathedral-photo-view.jpg
– spam name;
london16585.png
– less informative naming;
IMG324935.jpg
– non-informative naming.
Examples of good naming:
St.pete-cathedral-at-night.jpg;
St.pete-cathedral-Winter.jpg;
St.pete-cathedral-01.jpg;
St.pete-cathedral–02.jpg.
The Title Attribute
It is one of the most important SEO attributes. Here you put the information you’d like to display on the screen when hovering an image.
— For Corporative Websites:
The correct title:
title=”adidas sneakers blue”
title=”adidas sneakers All-Star red, model95″
title =”adidas sneakers blue side view”
The incorrect title:
— Spam:
title=” adidas sneakers blue buy cheap ”
title=” adidas sneakers blue, grey, black, photo, price, reviews”
— Less Informative:
title=”jacket”
title=” clothes”
title=”bags images”
— Non-informative:
title=”546321″
title=”buy”
— For Promo Websites
The correct title:
title=” st. pete cathedral at night”
title=” st. pete cathedral at night outside”
title=” st. pete cathedral in summer”
title=” st. pete cathedral 07.09.2018″
The incorrect title:
— Spam:
title=” st. pete cathedral view pictures”
— Less informative or general:
title=”London”
title=”cathedral”
— Non-informative:
title=”88521435″
title=”trip”
The Alt Attribute
Alt Text is an alternative image description. If for any reasons the image is not displayed on the website, a user will see information from the Alt field. If both are missing the user sees blank. High changes that search bots will index a blank page and display another content. This way your website will end up on the bottom of search results. And, of course, it is bad for SEO image optimization.
Here’s one important question about alt and title: can they be the same?
They can be similar, especially if there are tons of similar pictures on your website. Anyway, similar Alt and Title is still better than the blank fields. However, if you want to fill in Title and Alt automatically, just do it! Read here to learn how.
For different Alt and Title, you can use the examples below:
alt= ”adidas sneakers blue image 1”
alt= ”adidas sneakers blue image 2”
alt= “st. pete cathedral at night image 1″
alt= ” st. pete cathedral at night image 2″
Detailed descriptions are better for SEO image optimization. Keywords are allowed, but be moderate to avoid spam:
alt=” “Exclusive adidas sneakers blue color – front view”
alt=” “Exclusive adidas sneakers blue color – side view”
alt=” Picture of St. Pete Cathedral created in London at night ”
alt=” Picture of St. Pete Cathedral created in summer 2018″
Conclusion
Follow our recommendations to improve your website ranking positions and draw more traffic. As you can see, it’s not hard. And just in case: Clearfy can do much of the job for you and help with the perfect SEO image optimization.