Phoenix Website Design – Image Optimization Tips to Apply (Part 3)

Okay, I’ve shared Image Optimization Tips to Apply (Part 1) and Image Optimization Tips to Apply (Part 2) with you.

Here’s the last of the image optimization tips to help you enhance your website for the better. Are you ready?

6. Don’t forget to add alt text.

Alt texts are the written description displayed when a web browser can’t properly display the image.Like the image file name, the alt text is added to describe the image. Once the image won’t appear, the alt will be displayed on the top left corner of the image box. More on: 5 Best Practices when Writing Anchor Texts

So, you need to be sure that the alt text perfectly describe the image. Alt texts help you with your SEO strategy as search engines will read the texts instead of the actual image. You might think these optimizations are little and insignificant but, trust me, alt tags can help your website achieve better SERP rankings. Google even emphasized this on their best practices for images.

Aside from Google’s rules, the addition of alt texts are mandated by The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for users who are visually impaired. The alt text can help them decipher what the image is about without actually see it. For example, instead of just indicating “milk chocolate”, be more specific by putting the exact name “Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Milk Chocolate with Almonds”.

Lastly, a good alt text can also serve as an anchor text of an internal link.

7. Categorize your image files.

If you look at the same guidelines I mentioned above, Google made it clear that the file path and the file name are important factors when they rank images. What does this mean?

For instance, your website is selling different types of dresses. Don’t just dump all the photos in one folder. Instead, create subfolders to further classify your photos and start adding folders such as “Casual”, “Cocktail”, “Work”, “Formal”, “Maxi”, “Floral”, and so on.

8. Optimize your titles and meta description.

Aside from the file path and file name of your images, other factors added to the search algorithm are the page title and meta descriptions.

According to Google’s best practices:

“Google Images automatically generates a title and snippet to best explain each result and how it relates to the user query. This helps users decide whether or not to click on a result. We use a number of different sources for this information, including descriptive information in the title, and meta tags for each page. You can help us improve the quality of the title and snippet displayed for your pages by following Google’s title and snippet guidelines.”

9. Include mobile-friendly images.

How do you create images fit for the mobile devices? Easy! You add responsive images, meaning the photo will adapt to size whether a particular user is viewing it on a desktop computer or a mobile device. Other than that, here are some tips to help you. 1) Choose clear images that aren’t too complex when reduced to a small size. 2) Upload an appropriately-sized image, meaning you should choose the image with the largest pixel dimension for a website with large or wide photos. 3) If it’s the opposite, you can use a photo editor, such as TinyJPG, to downsize.