How to Optimize Your Blog Images for SEO (and Why It's Important)
I assume you already have a general idea of what SEO is. And I also assume you know how important it is to optimize your site so that it ranks well on Google and other search engines.
What you may not know is that images can help improve your site's SEO.
Or maybe you do know, but you're not quite sure how important it might be...
Whatever your situation may be, let's start at the beginning:
How to Optimize Images for SEO
There are several things to keep in mind, so let's go over the basics:
image size or compression
In this case, by "size" I don't mean the dimensions, but rather the "file size" of the images.
It's simple math: the larger or "heavier" the images you use on your website, the longer it will take to load.
Even with today's fast internet connections, this is an important point to keep in mind, so don't overlook it.
You can optimize the file size to under 500 KB using Photoshop's "Export for Web" option.
But if you don't have Photoshop, there are online tools that can help you do a lot with your images, such as changing their format, dimensions, or size. iLoveImgis one of them; it works very well and is available in Spanish. Just select the "Compress Image" option and adjust the settings according to your needs.
The smaller the file size, the better for SEO, but keep in mind that too much compression can affect image quality. It’s all about finding the right balance.
If you use WordPress, there are several plugins you can install to manage image SEO on your site. This article discusses a few of them.
If you're on Blogger, you'll need to optimize image compression manually. And if you're on Squarespace like me, even though this platform automatically generates multiple versions of the image for use at different sizes, it doesn't do a good job of optimizing compression, so you should upload an optimized image from the start.
image format
This one's easy: Google prefers images in JPG, PNG, or GIF formats.
Anything else will be less SEO-friendly, so try to use only those formats.
image names
This is one of the most important yet most overlooked aspects of images. The state of things is enough to make you cry.
When you use an image on your website, rename it. Don't leave it with a long, unrecognizable filename like IMG0284019.jpg or something like that.
The image filename should be related to what the image depicts. For example, the image in this post is namedoptimize-seo-images.jpg.
If it's a product image, just add the product name and you're all set.
It's important that the names don't contain any spaces, so make sure all the words are separated by a hyphen.
the Alt attribute
The other often-overlooked key factor. This element is vital for your images' SEO .
Why?
That's because Google can't tell what your image is about unless you tell it. This attribute is simply a description of your image, and even though it takes a little time to type out a description for every image you upload, it's extremely important that you do so.
Basically, an image without a meaningful name or description is almost as if it didn't exist for Google or any other search engine.
the context of the images
Finally, I’m going to talk to you about the context of the images, which is as follows:
When Google finds an image and knows what it is (because it has a name and a description that tell it what it’s about), it likes the text surrounding that image to be related to it.
For example: if you're talking about coffee, make sure the image's name and description also mention coffee—or something related to coffee—not shoes.
why it's important
Well, the short answer is that anything that improves your site's SEO is important and worth addressing.
Google displays not only articles but also images in its search results. And the way it determines whether an image is relevant to the search terms someone entered is through SEO. This is a source of traffic for your site that you shouldn't overlook.
But when it comes to images in particular, I find it essential for another very simple reason:
Pinterest is a search engine, and like any good search engine, it uses SEO.
Unless you use Rich Pins, your image descriptions will play a key role on Pinterest.
How?
Well, when someone saves a pin from your website, the description that goes with that pin is... the description you gave the image!
And why should you care about that?
That's because the keywords in that description are the ones Pinterest will use when someone searches. So if your coffee pin is saved with a relevant description, when someone searches for coffee on Pinterest, your pin is more likely to show up.
And this will give you an opportunity to drive traffic to your website, because it’s no secret that Pinterest can be one of the top sources of traffic. And if you’re a creative entrepreneur, it can be a very powerful tool for your content marketing.
in short
Images are just one more element of your website or blog's SEO. There are several factors to consider, and here I've covered the essentials that you shouldn't overlook.
It's important to optimize your images for SEO because this will help you drive traffic to your site—both from Google and other major search engines, as well as from Pinterest.
