Blogs are a great way to increase the SEO quality of a website. They are also one of the leading marketing tools in the current online world.
One of the primary SEO strategies that bloggers tend to is the keywords that their blog targets. But in order to maximise the traffic, you also need to ensure that the blog is interesting. Images play an important role in this aspect. They make a blog feel more lively and make it stand out.
But more importantly, images can also serve the SEO purpose in your blog. If not used right more can bring down the SEO rating and thereby affect traffic quality. So, it’s not simply about choosing the right picture. There are a ton of ways to ensure that your blog is SEO friendly, and image SEO is a primary part of this process.
If you have been simply choosing images and placing them in your blogs you need to stop! Here are some quick tips that you can use to ensure that your blog images play a part in your SEO strategy.
Naming the image
The name you choose for an embedded image allows Google bots to understand the content of the image before it even gets loaded. However, if your image has a random title to it then the SEO ranking of your page will surely fall. Your image should never contain a name like ‘farm_gijlh12.jpg’.
The best way to name your image is to keep it simple and relevant. If your article is about Australian farmers, simply title the image as ‘Australian corn farms’, etc. It is always better to keep the topic of your blog at the beginning of your image title. So, naming your image ‘corn farmers Australia’ can bring down the SEO ranking. Some experts also state that using a hyphen (-) between the title words also helps Google read it quicker. So, the best name for your image would be ‘australian-corn-farms.jpg’.
SEO friendly formats
While the format of your image does not directly affect your SEO ranking, any SEO specialist agency will tell you that the loading time of a webpage heavily affects its SEO ranking. And this is something that depends on the format of the images you use. If the format is one that requires a large amount of space then your page is bound to become slow. And a slow loading page is the death of traffic!
Using either jpg or png formats are recommended by most SEO experts. But if you want to use really high-quality images then the WebP format works best. You will require a converter tool to convert your images to the WebP format. Another thing to keep in mind about image formats is the browsers that your target audience use. Certain image formats are not compatible with certain browsers, and if an image does not load it will lower your SEO ranking. So make sure you do a browser test after uploading an image.
Mobile devices
In the current era, your webpages need to cater to multiple devices. This means an image you upload should be able to be viewed by PC users as well as smartphone and tablet users. This feature is known as responsive images. If your images are not responsive then someone viewing it on a smart device will find it awkwardly placed, and the ranking of your page, as well as its traffic retention capability, will fall.
If you are using WordPress then all your images will be automatically made responsive. But if you are using any other platform then you will have to encode the responsive factor into the images yourself. This is not a difficult process and easy tutorials can be found online.
Captions and texts
Google has the capability to recognise an image. But if you speed up the recognition process then your SEO ranking will become better. In order to do this, you can add a number of meta-objects to your image.
The most basic among these is a caption for your image. Making sure the caption contains a primary keyword also helps boost the SEO. You can also add alt text to the image which will ensure your image information is not lost even if someone is unable to view it.
Social media
You are going to share your blog on social media platforms. But if the image of your blog does not appear on the post then its social media SEO ranking is going to fall. This can be corrected through some simple coding procedures. But if you are absolutely aversive to coding then you will require the help of an SEO specialist agency.
If you are using WordPress this should not be an issue. But if you are using other platforms make sure they are social media-friendly.
Summing Up
Image SEO is becoming one of the key drivers of online traffic, and by maintaining the best image SEO standards you can provide a strong boost to your page. Furthermore, it will play an important role in your overall SEO strategy.
Make sure to title your image correctly and choose a format that does not increase the loading time of your webpage. These are the two most basic aspects to take care of while uploading an image to your blog.
Once you have uploaded an image view it from different devices and browsers to ensure that it is responsive, and add other features like a caption and alt text. Lastly, share your blog on social media and make sure the image shows up there as well.
If you take care of these aspects then your image should be SEO friendly. If you are a regular blogger and want to use your images to drive the maximum traffic possible, you may require the help of SEO professionals. But if you are a casual blogger, these tips will ensure that your SEO ranking stays up throughout your posts.
Leave a Reply