How to optimize images for SEO?

A blog without an image isn’t justified at all. Most of the content is supported by the images. But, if you have optimized the content and have ignored the images, it is a matter of concern.

Here are tips to optimize images for SEO:

Choice of the images:
You cannot randomly pick the images and place it in your article. Your images must be relevant to the text of the article. Secondly, your images need to be of high resolution. A low- quality image reflects on the quality of the article. If you are using a copyrighted image, do not forget to credit the owner or you can purchase the image. Once the base is set, you can start optimizing the images.

Use Alt Tags:
The alternative text or the Alt Tags help the search engines to read your images. It is a way to relate keyword with images. You can use product model or serial number as your Alt Tag. Do not leave any image without an Alt Tag.

Larger Images:
This is the most common mistake that we all make. Picking up a larger image and shrinking the size of it via source code. This will increase the page load time. All you can do it pick a smaller image and give an option for a larger view on a separate webpage.

Reduce the file sizes of Images:
Research says that the consumers wait for 3 seconds for the website to load on a laptop and 5 seconds on a smartphone. The page load time is a major criterion to get your website ranked. You can reduce the file size of the images and increase the page load speed.

Handle your Thumbnails:
Thumbnails are usually used on E-commerce sites as the categories can be easily scrolled through. You can make your thumbnail file very small and allow it to be indexed rather than the images directly. This will have a huge impact on the overall performance of the site.

Test your Images:
Loading time and images have a correlation, hence, you need to test the number of product images per page. You can also check the preferred angle of the customers. Try uploading images in different angles and check the perception of the users. You can also test category pages and the number of products placed on the category pages.

Use Image Sitemaps:
Want your images to be noticed by the Search Engines? The best way is to opt for Image Sitemaps as Web crawlers can’t crawl images. You can follow the Google image sitemap guidelines to get the best out of it.

Thus, optimizing your image is the key to higher ranking. Your content is equally important, but the images cannot be ignored. Do follow the above-mentioned tips and use it for your images.

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