How to Optimize Images for Better Search Engine Rankings
When search engines start indexing your website pages, they don't just focus on your writing. The crawlers used by services like Google and Bing scan the structured code of your website for relevant information to present to their customers. Some of the information includes things like backlinks, tags, and even images.
Images are an important part of any website. They stimulate the reader's visual sense and offer a little extra entertainment value. What most blog owners don't realize is that any images they upload to their sites are not specific to their site. Crawlers ensure that these images also appear on their search pages.
Image searches can attract a large number of new readers who have just viewed Google Images content. You can use this traffic and increase your average number of followers by applying photo optimization.
Let's say you upload a picture of your dog and put it as the dog "Frank". The crawler reads the alt tag without realizing that it is a picture of a dog. So, when someone searches for "frank", the scanner will infer that it should display an image.
Minor syntax errors may not affect the performance of your site or the display of your image, but will affect other users' search results and traffic to your site. If you can attract dog lovers from all over the world by modifying your dog's photo with the trademark "dog", now you are drawing in the crowd looking for your Uncle Frank.
To enable the alt tag, simply add alt="This is your alt text" to the image tag. Here is an example.
The same goes for website file names. You need to optimize the images and filenames for anything you want to include in your website's directory so that the information can be properly indexed and used as a search engine. You can name Frank dog's file "pug-dog.jpg", which encourages search engines to add Frank to searches for "pug". Alt tags and file names play an important interpretive role between you and the engine that runs your blog.
Not everyone who comes across your image via a Google image search is looking for your blog. They may just want to upload a photo and that's all you get from them. What matters is that they find your image relevant to their search and decide to go to your website to save it for their own use.
And the longer these users stay on the page, the better for you, as this affects your "bounce rate". A bounce rate is when someone clicks on a link, realizes it's not what they're looking for, and immediately returns to the search engine. If you can reduce these mishaps by providing interesting captions and content that will make people stay, your SEO rankings will improve.
Optimize images to keep file size as small as possible while maintaining image quality. While photos taken with a DSLR can look great, they can be as large as 1.4MB when taken directly from the camera and uploaded to your blog. This kind of space is huge for any daily blog and will hurt your SEO rankings.
Use Photoshop or one of the many online services like Google Picasa to resize images or reduce file size. One service that can do this for free and does a great job is Kraken . When you log into the Kraken site, you can upload an image and upload new image optimization options for use on your blogger site.
Images are an important part of any website. They stimulate the reader's visual sense and offer a little extra entertainment value. What most blog owners don't realize is that any images they upload to their sites are not specific to their site. Crawlers ensure that these images also appear on their search pages.
Tip #1 for photo optimization. Alt tags and file names
Visitors may like the images, but computers may not. Computers are designed to do what you ask of them without breaking any parameters. When crawlers come across an image on a website, they don't know what to do with it because it is designed to gather information, not interpret it. The solution to this problem is to optimize your images and tag your alt tags correctly so that they display the correct content when someone searches for it.Let's say you upload a picture of your dog and put it as the dog "Frank". The crawler reads the alt tag without realizing that it is a picture of a dog. So, when someone searches for "frank", the scanner will infer that it should display an image.
Minor syntax errors may not affect the performance of your site or the display of your image, but will affect other users' search results and traffic to your site. If you can attract dog lovers from all over the world by modifying your dog's photo with the trademark "dog", now you are drawing in the crowd looking for your Uncle Frank.
To enable the alt tag, simply add alt="This is your alt text" to the image tag. Here is an example.
But you don't have to touch the HTML of the image. After uploading the image click on it and you will see the "Properties" setting. Add alt text to the field and click OK.alt="real dog" />
The same goes for website file names. You need to optimize the images and filenames for anything you want to include in your website's directory so that the information can be properly indexed and used as a search engine. You can name Frank dog's file "pug-dog.jpg", which encourages search engines to add Frank to searches for "pug". Alt tags and file names play an important interpretive role between you and the engine that runs your blog.
Photo Enhancement Tip #2. Add the signature
After you upload your images, you should always add a caption to the image so that the main browser understands what it is looking at. This gives your website a more professional look and helps keep people on your page.Not everyone who comes across your image via a Google image search is looking for your blog. They may just want to upload a photo and that's all you get from them. What matters is that they find your image relevant to their search and decide to go to your website to save it for their own use.
And the longer these users stay on the page, the better for you, as this affects your "bounce rate". A bounce rate is when someone clicks on a link, realizes it's not what they're looking for, and immediately returns to the search engine. If you can reduce these mishaps by providing interesting captions and content that will make people stay, your SEO rankings will improve.
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| Image titles and SEO |
File Size - Image Optimization Tip #3:
Improving your bounce rate can be challenging since the average internet user's attention span is very short. It could be 8 seconds. High bounce rates and slow loading websites can kill most blogs because no one wants to wait for content to load. When your site is finally loaded with the content they want, they can easily visit two or more sites and find what they need from someone willing to handle their traffic.Optimize images to keep file size as small as possible while maintaining image quality. While photos taken with a DSLR can look great, they can be as large as 1.4MB when taken directly from the camera and uploaded to your blog. This kind of space is huge for any daily blog and will hurt your SEO rankings.
Use Photoshop or one of the many online services like Google Picasa to resize images or reduce file size. One service that can do this for free and does a great job is Kraken . When you log into the Kraken site, you can upload an image and upload new image optimization options for use on your blogger site.
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