A Guide to Understanding Image SEO

What is Image SEO?

Image SEO refers to image search engine optimization. This is the practice of configuring the images on your site to be better recognized and understood by Google and other search engines. Just like you want searchers to find your website on Google on a web search, you can get searchers to find your content through an image search.

Adding at least one image to a web page or post greatly helps your SEO. It provides another way for search engines to understand what your web page or blog post is about. It also allows another way for searchers to find your content through image searches.

A Beginner’s Guide to Image SEO

Image File Names

Great image SEO actually starts with the image file name. Uploading images to your site with the file name “IMG_4920” or “Alyssa-56” is not doing you any favors when it comes to SEO. Google looks at image file names to help it understand what your content is about. Before uploading images to your website or blog, be sure to alter your image file names. This is a great place to include a keyword you want to target. When setting your file names, add a dash between words to help search engines read your image titles.

For example, if you want to optimize your image for the phrase “family photo in Indianapolis,” set the file name to family-photo-indianapolis.jpg

Image Sizes

Another important element to image SEO that is often overlooked is the file size. Large images that take a long time to load on the web will not be prioritized by search engines. Be sure you are resizing images for the web before uploading them to your site. An image compression tool or image organization software like BlogStomp make this process easy and efficient!

Alt Text

Alt Text, or Alternative Text, is used for a few reasons. First, this text will display in place of an image in case of loading issues. It will also assist with accessibility for web users who may not be able to see images clearly. That’s why alt text should be used to describe the images. Do not use the alt text to stuff keywords into your post. Instead, describe exactly what is in the image as if you were trying to tell a friend what it looked like.

Be as short and succinct as possible. An alt text description should be roughly 5-10 words. For example, the alt text of the image below could be “Bride and groom kissing at Madden’s resort”

Captions

Adding captions to images on your website or blog is another way to help Google understand your content. The more search engines know about what is in your image, the more prepared it is to bring your images into search results for users. A caption is another place to tell your users and Google what your image is about. It’s okay if you don’t want to add a caption to every image on your website or blog. I understand that it’s not always the most aesthetically pleasing look. However, it is yet another way to boost your image SEO.

Image SEO Guide Conclusion

I know image SEO can be intimidating. I hope this post helps you feel ready to optimize images on your site. While the image preparation may seem tedious, it will be worth it to help drive more traffic to your site! For more SEO help, check out my SEO services for photographers.