If you run an online business website or an e-commerce startup business, you will definitely understand the importance of optimizing the images. Not only does this technique helps in grabbing the attention of your targeted audience, but it also helps in reducing the page loading speed, which is a great determining factor for user engagement on your site. By offering the users with a better browsing experience on your website, you also ensure better search rankings on the major search engines. This is more likely to happen because Google has made it pretty clear that seamless user experience is the key to better and strong online visibility on the web.
What Is Image Optimization in a Nutshell?
Image optimization is all about reducing the size of the images on your website while ensuring that there is no compromise with the image quality at the same time. As a result, the site loading speed becomes better and makes sure that visitors remain on your site for a long time. Apart from this traditional application, image optimization also deals with image SEO, which involves making your brand images and product images to be highly visible and rank on Google and other similar search engines.
With that being said, here are some tactics that ensure faster page loading speed and image SEO simultaneously:
Stock Images Can Make You Look Less Authentic
It is quite understandable that you want your product and brand images to pop on your business website. But think like this – if you pack your entire homepage with optimized stock imagery, won’t it make you appear unoriginal? Speaking of which, originality is the key to expertise en référencement web SEO success and the same goes for image optimization as well. Thousands of websites in your industry and other industries keep using the same generic stock images. Make yourself an authority that offers new elements to the audience and takes pride in showing genuine product images to the customers.
Leverage the Power of Original, Top-quality Images
As mentioned above, the more you focus on posting and optimizing original images, the more likely it will be for your site to rank better on the SERPs and the more you will be loved by your audience. For instance, you can create an infographic to share data with the consumers in an image format. You can also consider posting behind-the-scenes images of your brand for a more personalized approach. Maintaining the quality and originality is the key to perfect image optimization for your SEO and the audience.
Add Value with Screenshots
It goes without saying that images have the power to evoke the right emotions and have a better impact than that of long text. People always love and prefer to learn visually. When it comes to image optimization, it does not always mean reducing the size of the image. There is more you can do, such as enhancing the value of an image. Now, this can be largely done by utilizing screenshots through which you can complement the content of your articles and blogs, as well as, tell a story in order to keep the audience engaged. After all, the motto of your image optimization is to keep the viewers intact on your site and help them understand the concept of the product.
Stay Away from Copyright Images
No matter the type of image files your pick for using, make certain of the fact that they are not under any copyright. This becomes an important consideration when you scout images on platforms like Shutterstock, Getty, and DepositFiles. If a stock image provider has copyright on the photos and finds you using it on your site, you will face an expensive lawsuit. There are multiple ways through which you can get free images on the Internet. One such effective way is Google Images where you can filter your relevant searches and get images that are available and free for reuse.
Follow Best Practices for JPEG Files
While processing images for your websites, it is important to learn about the format of the image files. When it comes to optimization of images, the typical format is mostly JPEG. With a JPEG image, you can easily compress the file size, resize it, and maintain the quality of the image at the same time. Although there are few functionality issues with JPEG files when compared to PNG or GIF formats, there is no doubt that it is the most sought-after photo format in the digital world. The JPEG images also sit well with a wide variety of colors, shadows, along with multiple patterns which help in creating a high-resolution image.
Maintain Quality While Resizing and Compressing
Research on the main leading causes of slow page loading speed and you will always find out that images are the biggest reason that affects the loading time. If you are looking to improve your site’s performance in terms of speed and smooth navigation, you will have to take necessary steps such as resizing and compressing your image size. The Internet is all about speed nowadays and the success of your site entirely depends on the smart moves you make. In this case, the smartest move is to reduce the file size using Adobe Photoshop that has features ensuring no loss in the quality of the image. The software facilitates the “Save for Web” attribute which helps in optimizing the image.
Add SEO Friendly Alt Text
When browsers can’t properly show an image, the alt text is displayed in the vacant space of the image to let the visitors learn what the image is supposed to be. Google also scans the alt text to understand the topic of the image file. Hence, add the suitable keywords in the image alt text to help Google display your images in the image search results.
Concluding Thoughts
High-quality, original images can fairly be files of massive sizes, but you have to take care of it if you want to enrich the website browsing experience that determines the overall user experience. This directly affects your search engine rankings, as with higher user engagement, you can ensure better performance and visibility on the web. Stick to the aforementioned image optimization guidelines and make your website navigation streamlined.
