#1 – CHOOSING THE RIGHT IMAGE
Original images are always best. Sure, stock images are quicker and easier to obtain, but authentic images on your website are of far greater SEO value (it’s not really even close). The image you choose needs to be relevant to that pages’ content, and the placement of the image should be close to any relevant text.
#2 – OPTIMIZE FOR SPEED
Page sizes and speeds are significantly impacted by the images you use. Get this wrong, and your site will load slowly (always shoot for <1s per page), causing you to lose precious points when it comes to your rankings.
#3 – ALT TEXT
Another often ignored image SEO tactic is the utilization of the Alternative text field. There are so many reasons why this quick and easy task is great for image SEO. Firstly, for any user that is unable to access your image, this description of the content is key. They can help boost your search profile by enabling the web crawlers to understand and interpret your images. This even has benefits for visually impaired users.
#4 – DECREASE YOUR IMAGE FILE SIZE
Google’s mobile-first index means you need to account for mobile with the images on your website. Page speeds are crucial for mobile viewing, and by scaling down larger image files, you can boost your page speeds overnight.
#5 – LAZY LOADING
The lazy loading feature will defer images and videos from loading, until they need to be shown. These images are loaded as a user scrolls down the page, and this can significantly speed up page loading times. If your site is a WordPress site, there are many different plugins you can use to implement this function (Smush/Smush Pro).
#6 – USE AN IMAGE SITEMAP
Unlike regular sitemaps with cross-domain restrictions, image sitemaps can contain URLs from other domains. Because images are an essential source of data about the content on your webpage/website, you can provide Google with extra data about your images by submitting information in an image sitemap. If you have Yoast SEO plugin installed - this is done for you.
#7 – USE A CDN
A CDN will cache your files over a global network of servers. So, when a user visits your website, the images are loaded from the closest server to them.
#8 – USE A CAPTION
Just like URLs, captions can also be crawled by the search engines. If someone uses a keyword that is associated with your caption, they will find your webpage in relevant search results. You just need to make sure the caption is relevant to the image and the page. If you do not do this, then it could impact your bounce rates, and send back poor signals to Google that indicate your content isn’t a good match.
#9 – USE VECTOR GRAPHICS
Vectors graphics, when used appropriately, are another great tip for image SEO. They aren’t suitable for all types of images, but most effective for those consisting of simple geometric shapes, such as icons, text, and logos.