SEO for images: The importance of optimizing and positioning images

A different form of attract organic traffic to our website is through images. We are becoming more visual, so more and more websites create more visual content, whether images or texts. In many cases, the text alone does not make us decide whether to click on one content or another, but rather its images. The visual is obviously applied in social networks, but also in the field of organic positioning. It's not just about users and search engines finding your images, but also your Procedures with images do not negatively affect your positioning. We already told you How to position your videos on YouTube, this time we tell you 8 keys to SEO for images.

8 Tips for Optimizing Your Images for SEO

1. Consistent and quality images

It is essential that there be a relationship between the images that accompany a text and the content of the text itself. Otherwise, when the user is looking for content, if there is no coherence between the images they find and the concept they are looking for, it will not be relevant.

On the other hand, to the extent that we can, we must choose original and quality images. If we don't have the time or resources to create our own images, it's interesting to bet on modifying stock images to give them a corporate touch, different from how others use it.

2. Optimize the dimensions and weight of your images

Resize your images so that they have the right measurements for your website, neither larger nor smaller. For this purpose you can use image editing tools, whether they are professional or basic tools.

Optimize file weight it is essential to prevent the loading time of the web from increasing. For this purpose, there are programs such as ImageOptim that help you remove unnecessary information from the image. Once you have saved the file, always pass it through an optimization tool.

3. Name your images correctly

Let's talk about keywords. The name of the file is important when it comes to positioning images. If we have done our job of SEO Right at Write the content From the page, we will know which one is ours main keyword. And that is why, also, as we said in point 1, coherence is important. If the image is consistent with the text, it will also be true with the keyword.

To do it properly, we must: rename the original file that comes from the camera or from some discharge. The new name must include the keyword or a longer phrase containing the keyword, always separating each word with a Middle hyphen. For example, if the title of your article is called “Benefits of SEO for your company”, and your keyword is “advantages of SEO” the file could be “ventajas-del-seo-empresas.jpg”.

4. Add a Alternative text Relevant

The Alternative Text, also called Alt text or alternative text, is one of the basic steps that we must take into account when we try to position our images, since it is the text that search engines can read, since they cannot read images directly (for now). The type of content you should write there has to be, as far as possible, descriptive and with the keyword that you have chosen. It's an important element because it's one of the main reasons Google takes into account to show one image or another.

5. Choose the right format

It is important to choose a compressed format so that our image weighs little, like the JPEG Or the PNG (never tiff or other formats with extra metadata). For animated images, the Gif it is an ideal format, since it has little weight.

The PNG format works great with images with transparencies, for example, logos. In contrast, the JPEG format is a standard format for photos.

6. Text in the image (Captions)

It has been proven that an image with text is more likely to achieve clicks than an image without text, since it provides context to the image and makes it more understandable and attractive, so Improve the Engagement. Therefore, we recommend that the images we want to enhance, and especially those that we want to share on social networks, incorporate text that to attract attention or to provide context.

7. The Open Graph is important for SEO

The Open graph is a html code tag which is used so that when you share content on social networks, an associated image appears. It looks like this in html: <meta property=” og:image” content=” https://website.com/image-name.jpg”/ >. Having the Open Graph labels configured ensures that every time Share your article the associated image will appear.

8. Spread your images

Spreading your images can help: Enhance positioning of the same. That is, if an image has associated links, it will position better. A good way to get these links are social networks, especially Pinterest.

From now on, you can start optimizing the images on your website if you didn't do it before. If you were interested in this content, subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.

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