At first glance, many people will think that images used in websites are simple, straightforward content that need not be optimized. However, if you care to optimize the images you use in your website, you can help increase the traffic to it. if you want this to happen, remember that all the images in your site should each have their corresponding alt attribute.
Many beginners in the matter of search engine optimization fail to recognize the importance of optimizing the images they use in their website. By doing so, they miss a lot of traffic that could have been otherwise delivered by an optimized image. If you want to optimize your images, here are some ways that you can do so:
Using Alt Attribute And Alt Text
The text that pops up whenever you hover the mouse over a certain image is its alt attribute. If you place an alt attribute on your image, you will be allowing the user to know about the image displayed on your site in the event that the user is using a browser that does not support images.
The alternative text or alt text, on the other hand, shows the text that cannot be displayed on the site directly. You can use alt text if you plan to use the image as a link. All of the images on your site should have an alt text for each of them. If search engine robots cannot read images per se, they can read the alt text of the image. With the help of the alt text, the search engine robots will know what the image is about and this will help your image to get indexed. If the image is pointing to another webpage, the alt text can function as an anchor text. Keep your alt text short but concise. Long alt text may be considered by search engine robots as spam.
Limiting Your Images
As a general rule, using too many images, especially as anchor links, on your web page is not advisable. If you do otherwise, you will be taking away the role of a text link. Using text link as the primary navigation tool of the site would be the wise option than using imaged as anchor links. Otherwise, your web page will look odd, since many images can be quite distracting, and these images will give you the high conversion rate that you expect. Aside from these considerations, using too images will make the size of your page to be so big that it will take longer to load.
Naming Your Image File
An important thing to remember when naming your image file is to avoid using generic terms or names like pic1.jpg or image1.jpg. Also, you should not use lengthy filenames and keep your file names to a maximum of three words. The more words used, the spammier it will look. You should also include your keywords in your image’s file name. However, don’t overstuff your alt text with so many keywords.
Organizing Your Files
It would be wise to store all your images in one folder, not only for purposes of your convenience, but also to show search engine robots that your site is organized. Your folder for your images should not be buried under many folders because the path to it will look complicated and you may have a hard time finding a certain images when you need them. So, store your images in their own directory. Doing so will simplify not only the path to them but also the process of finding the right images at the right time.
On File Types
There are many file types for images but it is generally advised to use commonly supported file types like .jpeg, .png, and .gif. A bitmap image, on the other hand, is always high quality but has a large file size so it will usually take a long time to load. Therefore, avoid using bitmap images in your site.
You should use this whenever you can,
Ray Baker