In the digital world, where attention is precious, image SEO plays a crucial role. Images are more than just pretty additions – properly optimized, they make your website more visible and attract more visitors.
Why image SEO?
Image SEO increases the visibility of your content in the Google image search and improves the loading time of your site. The result? More traffic and a better user experience.
Advantages at a glance:
- Increased visibility: Optimized images appear more frequently in search results.
- More traffic: Better rankings attract more visitors.
- Better user experience: Fast loading times and alt texts improve accessibility.
- Improved SEO values: Search engines prefer well-structured, optimized pages.
In the rest of this article, you will receive 11 tips for effective image optimization. From file naming and format selection to alt tags and image compression – we’ll show you how to get the best out of your images.
Get ready to take your website to the next level with targeted image SEO!
Choose the right image file type
Use JPEGs for photos with lots of colors, PNGs for images with transparencies, WebP for an optimal balance between quality and file size, SVGs for vector graphics, BMPs for uncompressed quality (rarely used) and GIFs for simple animations.
Compress & scale the images for web use
Adjust the image size to the display requirements. An image that is only 800 pixels wide should also only be 800 pixels wide. Keep the resolution at 72 PPI or below to avoid unnecessary data.
Reduce the file size to improve the loading speed. Tools such as Smush or Shortpixel can help. Compressing a 2 MB image to 200 KB without noticeable loss of quality will significantly improve your loading times.
Use relevant image file names (keywords)
Name your image files with descriptive and keyword-rich names. Instead of “IMG_1234.jpg”, choose “herbstlaub-central-park-ny.jpg”. This makes crawling easier for search engines and improves SEO.
Use descriptive alt texts
Create alt texts that precisely describe the content of the image and contain relevant keywords. For example: “Colorful autumn leaves in Central Park, New York”. This improves accessibility and helps search engines understand the content.
Captions and context
Captions provide context and can contain relevant keywords. They are often the first thing readers notice and help to better understand the content of the image. Example:
Image: Colorful fall foliage in Central Park, New York
Caption: “Colorful fall foliage in Central Park, a popular attraction in autumn.”
If this makes sense, also include text around the image. There you can provide further context (and keywords).
Use responsive images
Make sure that your images are displayed optimally on different devices and screen sizes. On the one hand, you can control this using CSS. You can also use the srcset attribute in HTML to provide different image sizes for different display sizes. Example:
<img src="kleines-bild.jpg" srcset="kleines-bild.jpg 300w, mittel-bild.jpg 768w, grosses-bild.jpg 1200w" alt="Beispielbild">Use schema markup for images
Use the ImageObject schema markup to give search engines detailed information about your images. This improves the chances of your images appearing in search results. Example:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "http://schema.org",
"@type": "ImageObject",
"contentUrl": "https://www.example.com/herbstlaub-central-park.jpg",
"creator": {
"@type": "Person",
"name": "John Doe"
},
"datePublished": "2023-10-05",
"description": "Buntes Herbstlaub im Central Park, New York",
"name": "Herbstlaub im Central Park"
}
</script>Use geotagging images for local SEO
Geotagging adds geographical information to your images, which is particularly helpful for local SEO.
By adding geotags, such as latitude and longitude, search engines can better understand where the images were taken.
This is particularly useful for local businesses as it increases the likelihood of your images appearing in local search results and map applications.
To add geotags, you can use tools such as GeoImgr or special functions in photo editing programs. Example:
<img src="cafe.jpg" alt="Gemütliches Café in Berlin" data-lat="52.5200" data-lon="13.4050">Geotagging helps search engines to better localize your content and make it relevant for users in the relevant region, which can ultimately lead to more local traffic.
Use an image sitemap
Help search engines find your images by creating a special image sitemap. This improves the indexing and visibility of your images. Many SEO plugins for WordPress already do this for you. Alternatively, you can also do this manually.
Example of an image sitemap:
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/seite-mit-bild</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://www.example.com/bilder/herbstlaub-central-park.jpg</image:loc>
<image:caption>Buntes Herbstlaub im Central Park</image:caption>
<image:title>Herbstlaub im Central Park</image:title>
</image:image>
</url>
</urlset>Use unique images
Avoid using stock photos to increase the uniqueness and relevance of your content. Unique images created specifically for your website will stand out from the crowd and offer users added value.
Search engines prefer unique and original content, including images, which can lead to better visibility.
Performance optimization
Implement lazy loading
Lazy loading significantly improves the loading times of your site by loading images only when they actually appear in the user’s field of vision.
This reduces the initial page load time and saves bandwidth. Lazy loading can be implemented simply by adding the attribute loading=”lazy” to your image tags (currently supported by Chrome, Firefox & Edge):
<img src="beispiel-bild.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="Beispielbild">This is particularly useful for pages with many images or long scroll content, as only the images that the user sees are loaded
Use CDNs for international traffic
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) significantly improves the speed of image delivery by storing your images on multiple servers worldwide.
When a user visits your website, the image is loaded from the nearest server, which shortens loading times.
To use a CDN, choose a provider such as Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront, integrate the CDN with your website and upload your images to the CDN.
That’s it!
By implementing these tips, you can significantly improve the visibility and performance of your website. Image SEO is an essential part of a successful SEO strategy and should not be neglected. Invest time in optimizing your images and see how they take your website to the next level.
You can also take a look at Google’s best practices for image optimization.
