If you want to give your apartment in Melbourne a complete makeover or looking for DIY tips on decorating the patio, what is the first thing you do? Go to google and search for makeover ideas, right?
While doing so, you want the search results to show you images of apartment makeover ideas or patio decoration inspiration. You do not want to read about them.
Content creators or designers want you to view their images. This is where the power of image optimisation enters.
Marketers often do not prioritise image SEO, but popular SEO services in Melbourne and everywhere suggest that images are a crucial part of the website. Almost 22.6% of all searches account for Google Image searches.
What is Image SEO?
Do you know how image optimisation works? Also, do you consider image optimisation before uploading an image to your blog?
If you think putting the keywords in the right places is all there is to SEO, then you are wrong. Image SEO plays a significant role in improving the visibility of your website on the internet.
In simple words, image SEO is the optimisation of the image on the website to make it easy for search engines to find them during relevant searches. This, in turn, improves the visibility of your website.
It involves basic steps, such as using a high-resolution image in the correct format and size to reduce buffer time for images to load. This process ensures a better user experience.
Your website will get more viewers if you use high-quality images, as nobody wants to see blurry images of low quality. An increase in visitors or direct traffic helps the website rise in the index.
Best Practices for Image Optimization
Several important factors determine how the images will perform on the search engine results page. Here are a few essential optimisation tips:
1. Use Relevant SEO-Friendly Alt Text
When a user searches for a query, the search engine crawls through the web to find the most accurate result that matches the query. They match the keyword with the keyword mentioned in the image’s alternative text, or as popularly called, Alt text. Alt texts are succinct descriptions of what the image is all about.
- Compress Images to Reduce Size
Before adding images to the website, it is important to compress them into a suitable format. However, compression often ruins the image quality. So, make sure to choose a size that does not interfere with the image resolution.
So, choose professional tools and the correct formats to save the image in the best quality and size. Compression allows reduced load time, giving users a better experience.
3. Use Original Images
Similar to plagiarism issues on text format, you can run into copyright issues for using images that are not your own. Even while using stock images, take caution with licenses and do not upload any images to which you do not have the appropriate license.
You must upload original images if you want the image to rank higher on the results page. If you do not have an original image, cite the source of the image and give due credit to the owner.
4. Add Relevant Captions to Images
Always add relevant captions to describe what is happening in the image, the location, and the individuals in the photo. This could help with keyword diversity on your website, and the image will rank higher on varied search results.
Adopt Best Practices for Image SEO
Image optimisation has several benefits for your website; improved user experience, faster load times, ranking higher in the index, and other advantages. It should be an essential part of your SEO strategy if you want to see actual results.
Get in touch with professional SEO services in Melbourne to help you launch image optimisation for your website. Once you understand how things work, you can take it into your own hands.
