SEO Friendly Images
Whilst writing well-informative and descriptive content after having done extensive keyword research and done your homework on link structure as well as heading structure and optimizing the page’s URL is good for boosting SEO (السيو) and ranking higher on search engine results. However, your content remains somewhat incomplete without rich media like images or audio and video.
Adding SEO Friendly Images is considered the icing on the cake. As we have always promised you, here at Best4SEO, we are much more than a marketing agency, we would go above and beyond to help our clients and our readers to learn about SEO. Without further a due, let’s give you some tips on how to add SEO friendly images that best suit your content.
Rule #1 : Use Unique SEO Friendly Images
Just like copying content from other websites drastically lowers your SERP as it is considered plagiarism, stealing images from other websites is bad for SEO too. If you do not have the means and tools or even the time to design and create your own unique SEO Friendly Images, do not fret! Also, on a side note, do not overdo it with the images, you know what they say, less is more.
There are several websites where you can download stock images for free or for a small amount of money. Let’s show you your options:
- Freepik
- Shutterstock
- iStock
- Adobe Stock
- Dreamstime
- 123rf
- Depositphotos
- Fotolia
- Getty Images
- Stocksy
- Crestock
- BigStock
- Alamy
Rule #2 : Compress & Resize
Any image you add can’t be big, because in that case the page will take longer to load for the readers and Google algorithms will detect that, and it will be bad for your website. The optimal single image size is 100 Kb or less. You can use either the PNG, JPEG, or WebP image format to maintain quality while reducing image size. The right compression rate is important to maintain clarity and quality of the image.
WordPress has several plug-ins for SEO Friendly Images optimization:
- Yoast SEO
- ShortPixel
- EWWW Image Optimizer
- WP Smush
- TinyPNG
- ImageRecycle
- Optimus Image Optimizer
Rule #3 : Mobile View
Don’t forget that you are not only posting for readers browsing on their laptops or desktop computers. Odds are, most of your readers are reading your articles from their tablets or smartphones. So make sure, you check the mobile or tablet view as well when you are done adding SEO Friendly Images. You wouldn’t want them to look weird.
Rule #4 : Optimize Image Name
When you add SEO Friendly Images to your content, make sure that when you had downloaded it, you named it properly instead of a random name like 6456 or ksjd. Name it something relevant and including keywords from your content if possible.
Add the focus keyword to the image alt text, this will boost SEO Score. Again, give it a relevant title and describe what the image is talking about in the description section. The caption is what will appear under the image in your content.
The bottom line here is that you should use relevant image titles and describe what they are talking about, and take advantage of the image to use your keywords.
Rule #5 : Use Image Sitemap
Whether it is an XML Sitemap or an HTML sitemap, having an image sitemap is a great way to alert search engines about any new content you post on your website. If you use WordPress and have the Yoast SEO Plugin, it will automatically generate a sitemap containing all image information.
Rule #6 : Track Results
No work is completely done without constant reporting and analysis. The same applies to the images you had posted. The best tool for tracking your top SEO Friendly Images performance and overall organic traffic for specific keywords is Google Search Console. It can be done in these simple 4 steps:
- Login to your account on Google Search Console
- Move to the Performance report section
- Choose the Search Type filter by selecting ”Image”
- Click on the options you wish to observe data from: Queries, Tabs, Countries, Devices, etc
Conclusion
Having to deal thoroughly with SEO Friendly Images and other media alongside content writing itself can be tough work, but it sure is a good long-term investment in your website. Just focus on creating or finding unique and low-sized high quality roster images or vectors that suit your content and page identity.
Truth be told, it is a fulfilling feeling seeing SEO Friendly Images that add quality to the content and complement it and most importantly, the fact that you achieved this, this is a product of your efforts, so you should be proud.
4 Comments
amani itani
Do not copy images from other websites. Get your images from stock photo sites like Freepik...
amani itani
JPEG, PNG, SVG...etc you can use several formats but make sure each image does not exceed 100kb
SELENA RODGERS
Is there is a specific image format that we should use?
NATASHA HOPKINS
Do I have to make my own images can't I just copy them from somewhere?