Every third search performed by Google is for images while almost 13% of SERPs confirm image results rank higher.

Images can generate tons of traffic. So if you want to rank well in search engines and get your rightful share of traffic, it is important that you learn about optimizing your website images to score most of this traffic.

It is way easier after you get to know how to do it. Therefore, this Phoenix Web Design Company has decided to help all content managing companies in this regard. Don’t worry if you don’t know anything regarding image optimization. All you need is take care of certain things.

Descriptive File Names

The search engines are blind to images as they cannot see them. So they rely on the names of the files to determine what the content of the picture is.

Therefore, do not use the generic names of the image file like IMG6775.jpg! Instead, use the descriptive file names such as half-orange-illustration.jpg.

The more is the description of the image the better. You can go the extra mile by carrying out the research into the type of keywords that will be used on image content and optimize accordingly. 

Image Sitemaps

The purpose of sitemaps is to let the search engines like Google know about different elements of the site. You can create images to the existing sitemap or make separate image sitemap.

It will make the crawl of search engines and identify images of the website much easier especially if they get embedded in the pop-ups, JavaScript or other forms which are not called by the code directly. After creating image sitemap, you must submit it to search engines.

Responsive Images

Most of the internet users in the past would use desktop or computers. However, a decent chunk of traffic has been taken off by tablets and mobile users due to which the need for the responsive images has amplified.

The responsive images load at different dimensions depending upon the screen width of the device. It will also help in loading website in no time that helps a lot in SEO.

Size of Image File

The basic aspect of SEO depends on the speed of image getting loaded while pictures slow this down to some extent. Therefore it is advised to reduce the size of an image without affecting quality.

If the website takes a longer time to load, then the visitors leave the site as no one wants to wait around which makes it essential to reduce the size of the images being used on the website.

Utilize Alt Tags

If the pictures do not load then alt tags are shown instead. It may sound insignificant, yet it is critical regarding SEO as it contains a description of images that are being used by search engines. So while writing alt tags, it is better to utilize keywords but make sure not to stuff them as description must remain relevant to images.  

The image SEO involves a lot of aspects. Therefore, it is recommended to use photo editing tools with which you can edit your image and also crop them to better size and quality.