Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential marketing strategy for success in the modern business landscape. Marketers mainly focus on content and web design to drive their SEO marketing efforts. However, image optimisation is one SEO aspect that is also vital but often overlooked.
Professional web designers perform image optimisation to deliver high-quality images in the smallest possible size. This involves splicing images and reducing their resolution, making their file sizes smaller. Common formats used are .jpeg and .png.
Image optimisation has many benefits for websites. Read on to learn more about image optimisation and why it should be a part of your overall SEO strategy.
Image optimisation: why it matters
Most people prefer browsing a site with fast loading speeds. A slow-loading website is likely to result in reduced traffic, decreased user engagement and higher bounce rates.
Search engines may then classify your website as low-quality because of low organic traffic and slow loading speed. They may rank your website lower in the SERPs, making it harder for potential customers to find your services.
Google analysed 11 million mobile landing pages and discovered that, as page load time goes from one to 10 seconds, the probability of a site visitor bouncing increases by 123%. The same research also showed that too many elements on a page reduces conversion rates.
The typical internet user would rather go to another site than wait for a page to finish loading. To prevent this, it’s crucial to ensure fast loading speeds. One way you can do this is by reducing page weight by optimising images. Images with smaller sizes use less bandwidth and storage space, so they load faster.
Keep in mind, however, that compressing images too much can result in poor image quality. Meanwhile, compressing images too little will keep file sizes large, defeating the purpose of image optimisation. A professional website designer will be able to help maintain the balance between image quality and file size.
Steps to optimise images on your website
Despite making the file size smaller, image optimisation can still deliver high-quality images that make your website visually appealing and encourage user engagement. Apart from compressing images, however, there are other steps you can take to optimise your images for search engines.
Use ALT text
ALT text describes an image to make it easier for screen readers, used by people with visual impairments, to understand what the image is about. Apart from improving website accessibility, ALT text also helps search engines understand the content and purpose of an image.
For this reason, it’s important to include your target keywords in the ALT text. This increases your chances of having your images rank high in image SERPs. However, avoid keyword-stuffing—only use keyword phrases if they’re relevant to the page. Otherwise, it may result in your website being seen as spam.
Save with a relevant filename
As with ALT tags, include relevant keywords in the filenames of your images as this will help your website rank on Google. Filenames can also include the name of your brand, its products, or its services. This improves user experience, as website visitors can see the filename when they download the images to their device. It also makes it easier for search engines to understand what the file is about.
Boost your website’s SEO with help from our team!
Image optimisation can help improve your website’s Google rankings as well as its visual appeal. To maximise the benefits of this and other SEO techniques, reach out to Vaccoda.
Our team is comprised of SEO experts and professional web designers based in Bromley. You can rely on us to ensure your website is optimised for SEO and improve your site’s visuals to boost customer experience, generate more traffic, and get more leads. Contact us today to learn more.
