In the ever-evolving world of SEO (search engine optimisation), it’s easy to underestimate the role of images in our SEO campaigns.
Most of our time is spent worrying about where we rank on Google, if the website has broken links, or if the pages load too slowly.
Is there a chance that, by not putting more effort into optimising photos for SEO, we are missing out on some easy wins?
When analysing SEO best practices, it’s common for the written content on your site to take the spotlight. However, optimising the images on your website also plays a significant role in its SEO performance.
So how can image optimisation contribute to the overall success of your on-page SEO? In this blog, we’ll delve into the many reasons.
Google Image Search
One of Google’s most prominent features is Image Search, which lets users find information visually instead of through text.
In a study by Microsoft, it was found that the average internet user has an attention span of just 8 seconds. By optimising the images on your site for SEO, you have a better opportunity to grab the user’s attention within this short window of time.
Although Google’s ranking algorithm is largely unconfirmed, Google’s image SEO best practices guide suggests that the search engine gathers information from images on the internet, such as captions and image titles, and ranks them in order of relevance to the user’s query.
The next time you’re uploading an image to your website, be sure to give it a good title, and if necessary, include a caption. Optimising images on your site is a handy way to incorporate your target keywords into the content, meaning your images will rank on the SERPS (search engine results page), too.
Page Load Speed
The size of the images on your website can have a significant impact on the page load speed, which could result in users leaving your website entirely. It is reported that 40% of visitors abandon a website if the page takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Slow loading pages on your site can be minimized by optimising photos with the most appropriate file type (JPEG, PNG, etc), and reducing the file size with an image compression tool such as tiny.jpg. As a result, visitors to your site receive a positive user experience, and can find what they’re looking for.
Alt Text
Adding alt text to the images on your website is essential, and in some cases, a legal requirement, as this helps users with visual impairments access the content on your website.
When an image has alt text associated with it, screen readers can read the text aloud, allowing the user to understand the image’s content.
Not only does alt text provide a positive user experience for users with visual impairments, but it is also a key element of image optimisation. When a search engine crawls the content on your website, image alt text helps the search engine understand what is being displayed.
Since the search engine will be able to determine whether the image is relevant enough to display on the image search results page, this could result in higher rankings.
Need help optimising the images on your website for SEO? Contact the team at Engage Web today.
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