The Impact of Image SEO on Website Ranking

A website is a digital asset of a company. As a business owner if you’re confused about how you can make an appealing website. Is it a good idea to use visual content on websites? Yes, it’s always a good idea to use images on your website. It makes your website catchy and appealing. Human brains are wired to process visual content more effectively than a plain text. It also allows viewers to process complex information easily. Images also have a lasting effect on the memory of the user. People are more likely to remember the visual information. Using optimized images for SEO can benefit businesses in increasing visibility on search engines and improve website ranking on Google search engines.

What is Image SEO?

SEO is a practice used to improve the visibility of a website on search engine result pages (SERP). Businesses should focus on investing in SEO to improve the ranking of their website and to build an online presence. Various types of SEO techniques are used by businesses. To maximize the impact of SEO, a combination of two or more techniques can also be used. As we all are aware that infographics capture more attention than simple text, can convey complex information effectively and are easy to remember. Thus they are preferred over simple text, while the website interface is designed. Image SEO focuses on using optimized images on the website so they don’t negatively affect the performance of the website. SEO graphics are images relevant to the website content, have meaningful descriptions, captions, and tags. It helps to improve the site’s performance and increase the ranking of your website on search engines.

8 Easy Steps  to Make your Website Image SEO Friendly

Let’s discuss how you can  optimize the images and use them effectively to improve search engine ranking. 8 easy steps to make your website image SEO friendly.

• Use Images Consistently 

Use high quality  images on every page of your website. Images provide better understanding about your products and services. Images grasp user attention and keep them engaged. Search engines rank websites with visual content and images higher than simple text websites. Always use images on every page of your website to make your website attractive and improve user experience.

• Use Correct Image

Although it’s necessary to use images on every page of your website, it doesn’t mean that you can pick out any image from the internet and use it on your website. Using a high quality and right image is really important to maximize its impact. The image should relate to your website or article you are writing for your website. Position your image in the place where it is related to the text most . It will help users to understand the context of the text by just viewing the image. For example you offer digital marketing services, use an image on your website that conveys your message and is relevant to what your services are about. See the below image for reference

• Use Captions

Use correct names and captions for your images. While naming the image file may seem a simple and non important detail but it plays a significant role in SEO, use relevant and meaningful words. The name of the image should explain what the image is about. Avoid using names like “image123”, “xyz123” etc. Viewers scan the articles by looking at the captions of the images. Captions also allows Google to read the image files easily and understand the context of them.

• Use Correct format

Use the correct format of images on your website. Most common image formats are JPEG, PNG. If you are using images that are inside inline Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)  formats are not detected and indexed by Google. Because Google reads SVG as code, not images. You can use JPEG for larger files it will not affect the quality of your images. Use PNGs where you require transparent background instead of colored or solid background. WebP is a relatively new format introduced by google. It is used for high quality smaller files, you can convert your images to WebP using free online software.

• Use Compressed Files: 

Have you ever seen a disclaimer on the website while uploading an image that says the file size must be less than 5MB or your file cannot be uploaded due to its large size. It’s because these businesses have optimized their websites. Compressed files are crucial for Image SEO, they enhance the speed of the website, optimize crawling budget and allows crawlers to efficiently crawl through more web pages. You can easily compress a file with an online tool before uploading it to your website. Using compressed files means you are using the smallest size possible for an image, but that doesn’t mean you should compromise on quality of images. Use tools like imagify, compressor.io for image compression. Various SEO plugins are also available to compress the image files that are really useful such as ShortPixel,  WebP Express , Mattplugins.

• Use Responsive Images:

Improperly scaled and nonresponsive images can negatively impact the ranking of your website, responsive images are essential for SEO . Ask your developer to use srcset attribute to make responsive images for different devices. Use responsive images for different devices, you can make your website design responsive by using wordpress or bootstrap etc. Different plugins can be used for creating responsive images such as AdaptiveImage and ResponsifyWP.

• Add ALT text: 

Add alt text to all the images. Alt text is a text alternative used for images to make them understandable for search engines. Alt text makes your website more accessible. You can also add relevant keywords in alt text for improved SEO.

• Add Images Sitemaps

Adding images directly to your sitemap helps Google search engine crawler to index your website and increase the chance of high ranking on SERPs. You can add image URL, ,meta data, tags, captions , titles to your image sitemap can also be useful for indexing and crawling. Images sitemaps are helpful optimization, increase accessibility, efficient indexing and improved SEO.

Impacts of Image SEO On a Website 

Images are important for any website due to viewers preference for high-quality and visual websites. Nobody wants to read long paragraphs with boring text. Infographics are easy to remember and are engaging. However, if images are not optimized, they can negatively impact your website. Let’s discuss now how image SEO can impact your website’s performance.

Website Speed

Using heavy images files on your website directly affects the speed of your website; it slows down the website. Page loading speed is critical for SEO and a key factor in ranking a website. Slow websites have a poor user experience and have a negative impact on the performance of your website.

Search Traffic

Using relevant and optimized images not only increases your ranking in search engine results pages but also shows your website in image searches. Google search engines have a separate tab named “Images” under the search bar specifically for image searches. You can improve website performance and traffic by diverting audiences to your website through image searches.

User Experience

Image Search engine optimization focuses on using correct size for your image files, adding meaningful captions, SEO supported image description, naming image for SEO, and using trending tags are best practices for image SEO. It enhances the user experience on your website.

Bounce Rate

The benefits of using optimized images for SEO can decrease the bounce rate of your website. That means people are more likely to spend more time on your website, which not only improves SEO ranking but also increases the engagement rate of your website.

Conclusion:

Image SEO can be beneficial for your website if used carefully, but it can also have a negative impact  if not used properly. By using optimized images for SEO with other SEO techniques, you can improve the progress of your website as well as its ranking on Google and other search engines. SEO may seem heavy on the pocket at first, but it has long-term and lasting benefits. By implementing SEO-friendly images, you can enjoy various benefits: getting organic traffic on your website, improving the performance and efficiency of your website, reaching a wider audience, and getting more conversions. You can use online tools to identify the performance of your website. There are some free online tools that can be used for image SEO purposes and tracking the website performance such  Google PageSpeed Insights, YoastSEO that can make your Image SEO journey prosperous.