The Art Of Image SEO – Simple Tips By Semalt Expert

Pictures and videos are an asset for organic traffic and search engine optimization, but unfortunately, they are often overlooked. It's safe to say that images drive more traffic and improve your site's search engine ranking. There are some dimensions to the image optimization that involve better placement in Google results, optimization for better user experience, and optimization for getting lots of social media shares. For image optimization, you should think of URL structure, descriptive tags, and anchor text. Here are the six tips on image SEO prepared by Lisa Mitchell, the Semalt Customer Success Manager.

1. Find the right pictures:

Finding the right kind of images is important. High-quality images add value and dimensions to your articles or web pages. Besides, they encourage people to share your content and provide you with quality backlinks. You can find the suitable pictures on Flickr, iStockPhoto, Shutterstock and Getty Images. Flickr is probably the best and widely used service for finding free photos. Here you can access a large number of photographs and download as many images as you want. iStockPhoto and Shutterstock have a large collection of stock images. You can subscribe to these services to get access to those photos.

2. Use the keyword in your filename:

Just like you use the URL to describe a post or a particular page, you should use the keyword in your filename. Make sure the primary keyword is used as the file name of your image. It should not be something like iStock_0004221245XSmall.jpg because such filenames do not add information about your content. Instead, you should rename it to image-optimization.jpg.

3. Create descriptive alt text:

Creating descriptive alt text or alt tags is important. These help Google, Bing, and Yahoo determine what your pictures are about. Unlike the traditional content, search engines cannot evaluate the text of your images until you have not inserted proper alt text.

4. The anchor text:

Anchor text is one of the significant factors of image SEO. If you want to use multiple images in one article, make sure the anchor texts are properly added to all of them. Use descriptive anchor texts to describe your pictures. Another essential thing to consider is that you should use the primary keyword in the description of your pictures. There is no need to use generic terms that do not correspond to the meanings of your content. Keywords help search engines evaluate the nature of your content and the type of images you have used.

5. The images should match your content:

The content surrounding your pictures should be relevant to the image URL, anchor tags, and alt text. Also, you should align both your content and images to engage more and more people. It will help the search engines confirm that you are not trying to spam and the images are relevant and of high quality.

6. Don't stuff:

It will go for all kinds of search engine optimization, but we are going to say for clarity: you should not stuff the keywords to fill out the image alt text. Instead, your alt text, caption, and filename should be descriptive, comprehensive and short. You should optimize the images in a way that more and more users get engaged, getting you better search engine rankings.