SEO is a science in itself. There are many aspects that can affect the performance of your website. One thing we point out to our clients at Digital Glue is that, even though you may have a website design that is cutting edge, if you miss some of the crucial SEO optimisations, you may not perform in terms of website traffic. Inevitably meaning a reduced chance of business success. In this post we address some of the website optimisation techniques your marketing team should use.
Feel free to take a look at some of the results that our clients achieved as a result of our SEO tips and implementation. One client in particular is Wilkinson Dynamic Balancing.
First and foremost, one of the most frequently asked questions at the moment is ‘How to SEO Optimise Images?’ Image optimisation is one of the SEO best practices that most site owners and digital marketing teams miss out on. Therefore, ask your team the following questions:
Why Are Images Important for SEO?
Nowadays, user experience is one of the main ranking factors for search engines. Images serve as a great annotation to web pages as they provide an appealing and informative addition to the copy and content. However, it’s not simply a case of adding an image to your webpage, there are some other factors which you need to consider beforehand.
How to SEO Optimise Images?
What Image File Size Is Best for SEO?
First and foremost, image quality and file size is what you should consider. Getting the right balance between the two is essential. You may have an image with a tiny file size, however if the quality is compromised as a result of the file size, it can negatively impact your SEO.
Current best practices for SEO image size suggest that files less than 500kb and greater than 72dpi are best for user experience. These images therefore won’t impact site load speeds too much, but will add depth and meaning to your web page.
Is the File Name Important for SEO?
Image file names are important for SEO. When you save your image, you need to structure the file name in a way that includes relevant keywords. It’s best not to use special characters or capital letters. Separate each word with a ‘-’, image titles in this format can increase your site ranking within images SEO searches, while contributing towards your domains overall authority score.
What Do I Do When I Add My Image to My Website?
When you come to import your SEO optimised images to your content management system (CMS), you need to make sure you complete the necessary information to help boost your performance. These are the title field and image alternative text (alt text) fields.
What Does Image Alt Text Do?
Image alt text and title tags essentially work by telling search engines and screen readers what the images are about. These work well to help increase your likelihood of appearing in image search results. In addition to this, the alt text and title fields do two more things. Firstly, they give crucial support to site users that are visually impaired. Screen readers can analyse the fields in order to inform the user of what the image shows. And secondly, these fields can display on a webpage when there is an issue with site loading. If the image fails to load, the browser will display the alt text, which means the user will still be aware of what the missing image is about.
What Makes Good Alt Text?
There are three main points considered to be important with your image alt tags.
- Be as concise and specific as possible
- Use relevant keywords, to help increase your website’s visibility
- Ensure every image has its own, unique image alt text and title tags
Got any questions? Need some help or advice on your website SEO? Get in touch with the team at Digital Glue today.
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