Many people ignore the image optimization. This is important because everyone on the web expects websites to load quickly. The speed of loading has a direct correlation to the number of bounces you get and can impact your sales.
The reasons why you need image optimization for your website are:
1: Select Images that are Relevant to Your Content
Be aware that internet users are more likely to react to the images on your page before they read any text. A good image should capture attention and inspire readers to investigate and want to share your content.
People often react emotionally and an appealing image that really connects with your topic is more likely to leave a positive impression. Usually, it is better to take the time and create your own high-quality photos rather than using royalty free images from the internet that many others also use. Your own original photos are far better for SEO purposes.
2: Always Use The Highest Quality Format for Your Images
Search engines are designed to prefer high-quality content and high-resolution images. Web pages that contain images that are of poor resolution or incorrectly formatted often appear distorted on a mobile screen or a tablet.
Usually, JPEG file formats are best as they provide the smallest file size and best quality.
GIF files should be used only for thumbnails and decorative images never for large product images as the file size is very large and they do not reduce nicely.
3: Name All Your Images In Plain Language
To succeed with Good image optimization and a webpage that ranks highly on search engines, it is imperative you do everything possible to assist the search engines. Search engines crawl everything on your web page including your file names so these also must be relevant, descriptive keyword-rich file names.
Good image descriptions help to raise your profile and enrich the relevance of your content by helping web crawlers better understand your images.
4: Name and Optimize Your Alternative Attributes With Care
Alternative attributes are an alternative when a browser cannot correctly render images it uses alternative attributes to images, in the text, and for web accessibility. They are important for adding SEO value to a website so should include relevant keywords for the images.
5: Always have a Concise and Precise Captions with your Image
Users read captions under images on average, 300% more than the body copy itself according to Kiss Metrics. So if you leave captions blank you are missing a good opportunity for SEO and image optimization
6: Using Multiple images for Better coverage and Optimum Viewing
Always arrange your images in sequence and in context so they flow easily. Check the result and try and balance the right number of images with the quickest loading times. More images may mean more conversions, but too many can mean longer downloading time and more bounces.
7: Optimise Thumbnails
Using thumbnails is a great option, but they also need to be optimized and to be used with care. They can have an accumulative impact and could affect your page loading times. When placing alternative attribute text to thumbnails be sure to use a very different text to those of the main images or they could all become confused.
8: Sitemaps
If your images are not listed specifically in your webpage source code the web crawlers will not be able to find them. So to enable crawlers to find the images they need their location listed in an image sitemap. When using Javascript or image popups to enhance the viewability or the shopping experience of your webpage, using Google image sitemaps will make it easier for Google to notice you and place you higher in the ratings.
9: Test Your Web pages and Websites
Testing everything is very important for your website. Any mistakes will make all your efforts in vain as web crawlers will not be able to find you easily. Always check all web pages and alternative attributes.