The Importance of Image SEO for Your Website
When we talk about search engine optimization for your website, there is a lot of discussion about content and keywords. While this is certainly a critical factor for your site’s standings in the search engines, you shouldn’t overlook the importance of the images that you use. Search engines want to see images on websites that load quickly, while still maintaining high quality, and have proper tags.Â
Loading Images Quickly is Critical
Nobody likes a site that takes a long time to load, and an abundance of images can slow things down significantly. The search engines don’t want to rank websites near the top of the search results that take a long time to load. This doesn’t mean that you must strip your site of all visual appeal. The easiest way to make sure images aren’t slowing down your website is by compressing them before they are loaded into your site. This will allow the quality and integrity of the image to remain, while ensuring that it does not bog down the speed of the website. There are many programs available that can reduce image size, without compromising quality.
With more and more visitors to websites accessing them via a mobile device, it is imperative that your images be mobile-friendly. If your website features photos that are too large to display on a phone or tablet, this can impact your site’s overall appeal as well as your search engine standings. Best practices for using images on website are to include a high-definition and standard-definition version. This will ensure that the website looks great, regardless of what it is being viewed on.
Using Unique Images that Stand Out
There are plenty of stock photos available to use for your website. While many of these photos look professional and are high quality, if too many websites are using the same photo this can negatively impact your search engine standings. Whenever possible, create unique graphics and photography that is exclusive to your business and is only featured on your website.
Image Tags Can Improve Search Engine Optimization
An image alt tag can go a long way to giving your website a leg up in the search engines. Also known as alternative tag, this text is designed for screen readers and assistive technology. Choosing appropriate keywords that describe the image can give you an SEO advantage. Web searchers that are finding your site through an image search will also see your website’s title and description listed. This is another way to improve your SEO, including a keyword rich title and description on your website.
Designing your website and the images that are included with search engine optimization in mind is just another way to ensure that your business is listed at the top of the search results. At Five Star SEO, we have experience handling all facets of a business’ search engine optimization, including image SEO to ensure that you get the best results.
The Importance of Image SEO for Your Website
For more information regarding the importance of image SEO for your website or any of our other services, please reach out to use if you have any questions by calling 908-219-7792 or filling out the form below.
