What is Image Optimisation and How to Do It Efficiently?

  • Home
  • Blog
  • What is Image Optimisation and How to Do It Efficiently?
What is Image Optimisation and How to Do It Efficiently?

What is Image Optimisation and How to Do It Efficiently?

Posted On: May 28, 2022

Images make your content look more attractive, engaging, and accessible so always add meaningful images to your content. Google also ranks websites that have higher visual content. Images are among the heaviest elements on a web page so it is extremely crucial to optimise them otherwise they will slow down your page loading speed. Don’t know much about image optimization? In this blog, we will discuss everything you need to know about image optimization and how it impacts SEO in Singapore and all over the world.

What is Image Optimization?

Image optimization is the process of reducing the file size of the images without compromising their quality. It also involves accurate labelling with relevant keywords so that Google crawler easily understands your content and index it.

The purpose of image optimization is to improve page loading speed, and SEO ranking, and to increase user engagement.

image optimization and tps

Create Unique Images

Are you using stock photos or creating your own unique images? Using stock images sounds great but the results are not engaging and satisfactory. An image is the first thing that a user sees when they land on your page so make sure that they get a great first impression of your website. Research showed that 8 out of 10 users are most likely to return to your site if you add unique images.

The benefit of creating a personalised image for your website is that it improves user engagement and traffic, and people will identify your brand with your image. It also increases your chances of getting featured in top Google image results.

  1. Why should SEOs Use Unique Images?

If you want to avoid copyright issues then always focus on creating your own unique images. Never upload an image on your website by downloading it from Google otherwise you will get penalised for it. This might even hurt your SEO.

You can always outsource image creation to digital marketing agencies as these agencies have professionals who will create unique images based on your business needs.

  1. Beware Of Image Copyright

Don’t know how you can avoid copyright images? Here’s how you can prevent your website from getting sued for downloading copyright images:

  • Never download images from the Internet
  • Try to create your own images
  • If you don’t have time to create your own images then receive permission from the content author
  • Download from Google changing ‘usage right‘
  • If you are using someone’s image, always give them credit
  • Install images free from the public domain
  • If you don’t understand copyright law then talk to your lawyer
  • Buy images
  • Vectorize images

Choose the Right File Format

Most website owners neglect the importance of file format and they end up exporting low-quality images. Choosing the right image format is vital because when you deliver images in high resolution it will increase your user engagement.

Before you start optimising your images, you must understand the basics of image formatting. Each file format has a specific use and impacts appearance, performance, and scalability. Here are different types of files formats that you can use:

  1. PNG

PNG file is pixel-based which creates high-quality, sharp, and more defined images on digital and mobile displays. This file format supports transparent background or graphics with fewer colours. It uses lossless image compression

  1. JPEG

JPEG is the most commonly used image format on the web because of its universal browser support, fast loading, and small file size. It efficiently supports the display of millions of colours and maintains good quality of images.

  1. GIF

GIF supports animated images across all web browsers and is ideal for graphics where few colours are needed. It uses a lossless raster format.

Image Name

When it comes to image optimisation, it is crucial to add relevant or descriptive keywords in your filename because search engine also crawls through it. Take a look at your analytics and determine the keyword patterns that your customers are using to search for your product and name your image file accordingly.

Keep in mind that if you name your image files strategically it will not only increase your traffic but your image will also rank higher on search engine pages.

alt Attribute

Alternative text also referred to as ‘alt attributes,’ ‘alt descriptions,’ or ‘alt tags’ is an HTML code that defines the function of an image on a webpage. Alt tags help in improving search engine ranking as they offer better image descriptions to search engine crawlers.

Purpose of the alt Attribute

Search engine crawlers are unable to interpret the images and to overcome these alt tags are assigned to the images. So, when Google crawlers are going through your page, they can easily understand a well-formatted image and rank it. Similarly, it is also helpful for users When their browser can’t process the images.

However, if you fail to add alt descriptions to your images, it will have a detrimental effect on the ranking of your website.

Why is alt Attribute Important?

 Alt text increase accessibility and ensures a better user experience by describing images to visitors who can’t see them due to visual impairment or other technical issues. It also boosts your SEO by making it easier for the search engine to understand the context of your image.

Image Dimensions

When you are uploading an image on your website, make sure to take care of its size because images with large file sizes take ages to load and it will create a bad user experience.

When you resize an image, its pixels are updated. For instance, when you compress the images, the unnecessary pixels are discarded. But in doing so the quality of the image may get compromised. If you understand the correct dimensions of your images only then you can resize them without distorting images.

Mobile Responsive Images

Another crucial element is to make sure that your image appears clearly on smaller screens such as mobile phones and tablets. Let’s suppose that the smaller screen is a container in which you want to fit your image. You can only do so by ensuring that the dimensions of the picture are proportional to that container. It means that your image will fit into the container regardless of its size.

Reduce File Size

On average, images occupy up to 21% of total web page weight so its optimization is way more important than content writing and formatting. The ideal image size for a web page is under 1 or 2 MB.

Generally, there are two types of methods that you can use to compress your images:

  1. Lossy Compression

 It degrades the image and significantly reduces file size by eliminating unnecessary data so be careful while using this method. Once you have compressed the image, you can use tools such as Adobe Photoshop, and affinity photo to adjust the quality of the image.

  1. Lossless Compressions

Lossless compression as the name indicates is a technique that doesn’t lose any data during the compression process. It just compresses the data into smaller “packs” and you can perfectly reconstruct the compressed data from these “packs”.

The best way to find out which technique works best for you is to do an experiment with each format. It also increases your visibility and boosts organic traffic to your website.

Optimize Thumbnails on Product Category Pages

Optimising thumbnails is another strategy for gaining traffic from Google. Make sure that your thumbnails deliver on the promise and address the users’ query otherwise, it will impact your SEO negatively. Here’s how you can optimise it: – Create good quality and add clear images for thumbnails.

  • Avoid giving unnecessary details
  • Make informative and unique images
  • Use consistent branding

Use Image Sitemap

An image site map is a URL that provides information about various images to search engines. A typical site map must include information such as type of image, caption, title, geographical location, subject, and license.

Adding images in a sitemap isn’t necessary but if you want Google to index every image, and your ranking Then using this strategy can be helpful.

Image delivery with CDNs

Image CDN Is specially designed to optimise the images and speed up the process of delivery of images to the users. It also saves 40 to 80% of the file size of the image.

When you load your image from CDN, its URL will indicate important information such as size, format, and quality. For example, you can convert all your PNG images to webp Because they load quickly and provide the best quality. Here is why you should use CDN for images:

  • Improve loading time
  • Enhance search engine ranking
  • Increase conversions
  • Better security
  • Reliability and availability
  • Reduce cost

Use Images in Structured Data for Featured Snippets

If you want Google to display your images in the top search results, then you must add structured data to your web pages.  Even though Google states that structured data doesn’t play a significant role in ranking, it does help you in getting listed in image searches. Google supports structured data for products, recipes, or videos.

For instance, if you upload a recipe for banana bread on your website and add structured data to your image, chances are that Google might add a badge to your image which will certainly increase your visibility.

Make sure that the image is proper Is optimised and has alternative text so that it can be easily indexed.

Conclusion

Most e-commerce business owners don’t understand the importance of image optimization and as a result, they struggle with the website loading speed and SEO ranking. Image optimization is all about finding the balance between the lowest file size and reasonable quality. It is a highly time taking and technical job that requires skills.

Are you looking for SEO in Singapore? BThrust SG is a one-stop solution for all your SEO needs at affordable rates.

Read Related Blogs

  • 24
  • Jan, 2023

Understand Why SEO is a Valuable Aspect for Your Business

SEO is not new! We are sure that you have heard about search engine optimization (SEO). But you might be unsure what is SEO, why it is important for businesses, or how to implement SEO strategy! An SEO is the practice of digital marketing that help your business to visible…

  • 1
  • Dec, 2022

How To Power Up Your Business Online Presence With The Right SEO Plan?

Many businesses frequently undervalue the value of having a website. A website was once all a business required to create an online presence. But given that there are now billions of websites, it is difficult for a business to rely just on a website to establish its online presence. Digital…

  • 2
  • Nov, 2022

How to Build Your Brand With Digital Marketing?

A company's brand is a mixture of its identity and everything that distinguishes it, such as its name, the specific sort of products or services it offers, and everything from the colour of its logo to the way its advertisements are written. A company's brand provides a unique experience to…