How Can I Optimize Website Images to Improve Search Engine Ranking?

According to Jumpshot, searches through Google Images were the second most popular type of search.

This is an incredible statistic, especially for websites that rely on imagery, particularly selling product online.

So, if you want to rank higher in the search engines, you need to know how to optimize your images.

How?

Answer: Meta Data, specifically

• File name
• Title text
• Alt attribute text
• Caption (if applicable)

Here’s an example (in WordPress):

Let’s say I had an eCommerce store where we sold and created unique, hand-crafted furniture. We would want every image to contain product related keywords so if someone was searching for a handmade, wood, dining room table that image would get correctly indexed and ranked accordingly on Google based on those keywords.

To do this, first the image filename needs to include the correct/necessary keywords. Below is a sample image. A good filename could be: ‘handmade-dining-room-table.jpg’ or ‘white-dining-room-table.jpg’ or ‘small-white-dining-room-table.jpg’. You get the idea.

Next, add Title and Alt text. After uploading into WordPress, change the default Title and Alt fields (see screenshots below)

Below is the image HTML code that is inserted by WordPress which Google uses to verify and index the image content.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-4848 size-full" title="Small White Dining Room Table" src="https://mjswebsolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/small-white-dining-room-table.jpg" alt="Small White Dining Room Table" width="400" height="404" />

Again…the 2nd most popular type of Google search are for images.

Always be thinking keywords when adding any new images to your website so they’re optimized for Google search.

Featured Image by Arthur Yeti on Unsplash