Optimizing photos for fast website loading and SEO involves several steps to ensure that images contribute to your website’s search engine rankings and user experience.
Here they are:
- Use the right image format. JPEG and PNG are your go-tos.
- Compress Images. Smaller file sizes lead to faster loading times. Your website most likely includes a file compression plug-in. If your site is WordPress, it definitely does.
- Use Descriptive File Names. Images taken by a digital camera get names like IMG2024091.jpg. What does that tell Google? Nothing. Thus, renaming is essential. Use one of your keywords.
- Use hyphens to separate words because search engines read hyphens as spaces.
- Add Alt Text. When saving photos for use online, include descriptive alt text for each image to help search engines understand the content of the image.
- Resize Images. Resize image file size for faster loading. Don’t use large images.
- Place Images Logically in Context. Your images should be placed near relevant content to reinforce their context.