SEO Tips – Image Optimization #3

One Minute Marketing Tip (OMMT) Video Series

Optimizing images will improve search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic.

This SEO tip for your web images is part 3 of a 4 part series that will show you how to add SEO optimized images to your website or blog quickly and easily. We will focus on file size and why it is important to SEO due to the Google's focus on page load times. Plus, we will tell you about a great free WP tool that optimizes file sizes for you.

Key Takeaways from the series:

1. Image names are important. They should always contain your keywords
2. SEO friendly directory structure. Don't let your content management system determine the image folder. Create your own keyword optimized directory location and save your images there.
3. Use the image title attributes - include keywords but make sure the information is useful for the person viewing (don't stuff keywords)
4. Use the ALT tag - the alternative tag is the description of the image that pops up when you mouse over the image or when your browser can't display the image. Include your keywords here in a description of the image that makes sense to the site visitor.



Other Great Image Optimization Tips:

1. General consensus among SEO pros is that images get crawled better when placed within text. (like the example above)
2. Try not to spam your page or post by copying ALT tags and title attributes from one image to another.
3. Image file size - make sure you are using a compressed format like jpeg or gif for your images. Make sure that the file size is small enough so that the image loads quickly. Search engines are paying close attention to overall side load times.