Adding images to your blog is a very good idea. It does not lower the perceived quality of your content because what you are writing is not a book, and for all pretension there are no people who are going to think your blog posts reach the same academic or literary merit as texts that are published in hard copy or journals that exist online, so you can stop worrying about if blog post images are going to make your content more low brow because it is by nature a blog post and is not as lauded as published content.
Lower the file size of the image
An image file may be lowered in size so that it loads a little more quickly. Google considers a fast loading time to be very important. The faster your website or blog loads then the more eligible it is for a higher rank on search engine results pages. A smaller file is going to load a little quickly.
But, if this tip were to argue against itself then one could say that lowering image sizes (resolution) is kicking your viewers in the teeth. Why should search engine preference or technology dictate how good your images should be? And it is a very good point that you should consider.
So, why not do it on an image by image basis. If the image does not need a massive resolution because it is simple in composition and content, then go for a slightly smaller image. If the image is complex and/or visually stimulating, then go for a larger higher resolution image.
The file format of your image
File formats such as BMP are good for editing your pictures because you will not get that pixel leak that you do with JPEG when the colors merge over lines. But, BMP is not ideal for images on your blog.
You can change the image file type and your images will still look high quality. There are only very subtle differences, and many of them are only noticeable when the image is zoomed in very close. There are times when the quality changes. For example, if you were to change a BMP image into a GIF image then you may see quite a change.
Change your file formats to either JPEG or PNG as these are the two file formats that are suitable for use online without taking too much away from the images themselves.
Change your image file name
This is something you do before you load your image onto the server. You change its file name to something that is search engine friendly. Try to keep it descriptive and try to add in a keyword or two. It is not known if changing the file name of the image is really search engine friendly or not, but it is better to do it than to not.
The title tag
Naming your image on the website is possible, though it is not really a needed part of your image/website. The title tag may be referred to as the Meta data of an image. The title tag is what the image may be called if it had a web page of its own. Make sure you add in a keyword or two into your title tag, and try to make it descriptive.
The Alt tag
This is put onto the image so that if the image doesn’t come up then the user may see what it was supposed to be all about. It is also handy for people who are blind and have the computer read out what the image is supposed to be all about. It should be descriptive, and you will be penalized for over optimization if you just fill it full of keywords. Try to add at least one keyword, but do it as part of describing the image on the web page.
Checking the Google image parameters
Google has an image search function that allows people to search out images via the use of a search bar. No matter what you type in, you are bound to see several images of animal cruelty no matter what. Still, if you don’t mind having your images nestled next to the frantic torture of Halal meat then look up the parameters that images need. For example, have you noticed how each image seems to have a description in a fashion? Find out how you add in your description and how you make your images eligible for indexing within the Google images search bar.
Kate Funk is a cofounder of www.aussiessay.com, where thousands of essays on different topics are available. Kate is one of those who are passionate about SEO, internet marketing and the like.
Usually I will have my photos for my blog all stored in a file on my computer and I will organize them by the key word of the blog post. For example I did a post about bats recently. there were three images in the post; ‘bats flying’, ‘bats portrait’ and ‘bats eating’ (or something like that. I forget exactly but the point remains.) This way, all the pictures are grouped together in the file AND the keyword is attached to the photo when I load it onto the server.
I do name my pic for SEO optimization with the keywords, one name is enough to optimize and deliver messages to Google.
Great article to optimize images for SEO. If your blgging platform is in WordPress then you can use WP Smush.it which reduces image file sizes and use SEO Friendly images plugin which automatically adds alt and title attributes to your images base don the filename you set for the image.
Jayashree recently posted..How to do wifi speed test to check your wifi performance
Thanks for the tip, Jayashree!
It can be overwhelming to add all the names to each picture but I have seen that it makes a big difference on Pinterest and directing traffic to my site!
Prairie Wife recently posted..YOU Ask Texas Two Steppin’
Image is the important tool to drive visitor attention to any website. optimizing those images will drive more traffic to the website. You shared an really useful information here and thanks for it.