How to make images SEO friendly

An interesting fact is that articles which have images attached to it, on average, get 94% more total views as opposed to an article without an image. For digital marketeter, it’s common sense to include images in their blog posts. Over 20% of the majority of web searches happen on Google Images. SEO amateurs in addition to pros alike know that optimising images for your website is extremely worth the time spent.

The value of images on a website

Flash and images are wonderful ways to make a website appealing to readers, attractive and compelling. However, search engines have diffulty accessing the content conteined within Flash files (although they have made improvements in recent years). Also, from a usability standpoint, not everyone is able to download the Flash element (owing to low bandwidth and slow Internet speeds). If you would like to optimise your website, use Flash elements within  an HTML page and do not put together a website which is 100% contained within a Flash file.

The value of images in SEO

From an SEO standpoint, images may seem like a straightforward component of your site, but you can optimise your use of them. Remember the analogy of the library? All images can have a distinctive file name and an ‘alt’ attribute, both of which you should take advantage of. The ‘alt’ attribute allowz you to specify alternative text for the image if it cannot be displayed for any reason. Another reason for this is that if you’re using an image as a link then the alt  text for that image helps to provde search engines with context about that image. You can also add keywords to your ‘alt’ tags as long as they are relevant to your image.

However, try not to make use of too many images as links in your site’s navigation when text links could serve the equivalent purpose. Optimising your image file names and alt text makes it easier for image search tools to understand your images. Note that you need to make sure that you save all imagery in a separate image folder or directory instead of across multiple subdirectories. In this way the path for all images will be the same.

Images can have title tags

Images can also have title tags which are an explanation of the image that you will see if you hover over it. This tag just allows for additional information for the reader. Ideally you should have both an alt and a title tag. The alt tag allows readers to know what was supposed to read if it doesn’t, and it allows Google to see what the image is about (because Google can’t “see” images). The title tag allows a description of the image to be included when you hover over it.

Image SEO is just one element of on-page SEO. This type of SEO, keyword optimisation in addition to other SEO copywriting best practices must function together for optimal performance. As you create copy for your website, you can also make use of an on-page SEO checklist in order to ensure your pages include all the essential elements.

Once you’re sure your on-page as well as image SEO are in good shape, look at the bigger SEO picture. Make sure that your website is optimised for all other types of SEO to attain the best results from search.

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