Pictures are worth a thousand words… and millions of traffic, too!
Search engine optimization has evolved in many ways. The competition has expanded into a whole new level. Now, it’s not just about copies and content marketing. Pictures are also getting the most attention nowadays.
Google has been prioritizing websites that creates quality content. Alternative contents, other than copies, contribute a lot to the overall SEO success of a website, especially those in the e-commerce business.
Websites that offer products are the ones benefiting from this trend because search engines like Google provide an advanced image search. It allows prospective customers to just search for the product they are looking for, browse for the right picture, and bring them straight to the website that sells that product.
The use of images as SEO tools is widely used by many websites because of its ability to reach a broader range of audience. People are looking for contents that are easier to digest, contents that can be understood in one glance.
So, don’t get left out. Improve your website SEO now using image contents. Here are some tips on how you can improve your SEO through your website images.
1. Add Alt Text to Your Images
They work like hashtags. The keyword is still an important element in website image optimization. You have to let the search engine know what the image is for – the words associated with it. What does it do? What particular group of things does it belong? What problems does it solve? Is it about Christmas?
The best practice is to stay relevant to what the picture is telling. In other words, alt descriptions or alt text gives the people a signal on what the picture is all about, providing your images better position in the results. These texts will help search engine crawlers to navigate through your site and index the images properly.
One word of advice though. Don’t overdo this practice. Use image tags only when it’s necessary. Putting alt text on pictures that don’t have a function or for design purposes only, you better leave it without description.
But if it’s still too technical for your, this code snippet can probably help you understand alt text better: <img src=”image location” alt=”Target keyword and short description”/>
2. Optimize Your Image Title
Title descriptions don’t account much in SEO of the websites. However, image titles still have a purpose as a marketing element.
Image titles appear when the mouse hovers over an image. It’s a great element for your website images as it gives an instant description for the viewers.
Related: How to Make Your Blog Images SEO friendly
3. Well Thought File Name
This is where things get technical. Google crawlers need a profound description of the things you put on your website, especially the visual contents such as images and videos. You have to use descriptive words to do that because search engines cannot digest pictures as humans do.
But don’t worry. You don’t have to write a novel to do that; just put a suitable file name, and Google will get it. One good example is when you put a particular product picture in your site; let’s say the new iPhone X matte black. A file name iPhone-X-matte-black.jpg is the better way to do rather than putting random letters and numbers.
Always remembers that Google evaluates content based on its relevance on a particular subject. Don’t forget to apply this principle when tagging or putting a file name on your website image. You can also set a brief description of the image so that search engines can understand the image better – the more straightforward, the better.
4. Optimize Your Image File Size
In the world of SEO, size does matter. This element significantly affects the performance of your website because it directly connected with your website’s speed. Loading speed is a very vital factor in determining the SEO ranking of a particular website.
Sluggish performance drags down the user experience, which is a total turn off for Google. Therefore, developers should always include file size in the equation as it affects the loading speed and performance of the website.
Worst case scenario: you’re running an e-commerce business, and your website has a slow loading speed. You can quickly lose a bunch of potential profits if this is the case. Amazon reports that they could easily lose $1.6 billion in sales every year just because of 1-second delay in loading time.
Pro Tip: Use high-resolution images but with small file size. However, image quality cannot be compromised by the file size. You should be able to lower the file size while providing a high-quality image.
You can also use technical tools such as Google Page Speed Insight or Pingdom to check your website performance. Photo-editing software solutions might also come in handy such as Photoshop, Gimp, and Tinypng.
5. Invest in Info-graphics
The fastest way to increase your traffic through website images: let the experts do it for you. Content marketing services in Canada offers expertise in SEO including image optimization. They can formulate strategies that will surely drive your website at the top of the results.
One of the most effective content marketing strategies that SEO companies are utilizing is info-graphics. This type of content is “bite-size.” The ordinary audience can easily understand them. They’re effective in explaining complicated stuff such as statistics and trends.
According to studies, 94 percent of screen viewers are more likely to engage in info-graphic contents than copies with pure text. In another study, websites with rich-infographic contents can grow their traffic and conversion 12 percent faster than websites that don’t offer such kind of contents.
Conclusion
Pictures have the power to captivate a person’s attention. It evokes fallings, emotions, and perfect ingredient to sell and convert the audience into customers.
SEO is a big world. Writing relevant and high-value copies is not enough. Now, the marketing battleground is already shifting into alternative contents such as image and videos.
People are looking for valuable information at a much faster pace. If you can’t provide what they want in an instant, you definitely cannot compete in this cutthroat environment.
So, adapt to the changes. Pay due diligence in every aspect of the game. Or you can also call for help. You can check a case study conducted by a content marketing services in Canada to instantly boost your website. The best part is you can do it with surefire success when you hire your team of experts.
