Image SEO Guide: How to Optimize Images for SEO

If you’re like me, you spend a ton of time optimizing web pages and blog posts for SEO.

This is a good thing. Your content won’t rank in search engines if it isn’t structured properly or doesn’t have the right keywords. And content that doesn’t rank won’t benefit your business as much as it could.

But when’s the last time you thought about optimizing images?

The truth is, image SEO has never been more important than it is right now. Do it right and your website will generate more traffic. Just as important, you’ll be able to provide a better experience to your website visitors. These two things will likely lead to more sales, revenue, and success.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about image SEO, including the truth about image file names, alt text and descriptions, and your image sitemap. Let’s dive in!

Why Image SEO Matters

Let’s start at the very beginning.

Image SEO is the act of optimizing a website’s images to attract more traffic from search engines. This is done via appropriate file dimensions, relevant alt text, interesting captions, and more.

Optimizing images can help your content achieve better rankings, generate more website traffic, and improve the user experience. Let’s take a close look at each of these benefits:

Better Rankings

Do you know how search engines work? Let me explain…

First, search engines crawl the internet to find new web pages. Second, search engines add the pages they’ve crawled to their respective databases. Third, search engines rank content.

The higher your content ranks, the more likely your target audience will see it. This begs the question, “How do I get my content to rank higher?” You can make sure your content loads quickly, is structured the right way, and includes relevant keywords. You can also optimize the images you use.

Why does this last tip work? Because these images help search engines understand what a web page is about. When they know this, they’ll likely rank it higher.

More Traffic

Image SEO can also lead to more traffic.

This is true for two reasons. One, web pages with quality images rank better in traditional search result pages. Two, quality images can also rank on Google Images. This is important because Google Images accounts for 22.6% of all internet searches. That’s a lot of searches!

Imagine how much more traffic you’ll receive when your site ranks for image search queries. (Hint: way more traffic.) You definitely don’t want to miss out on this opportunity.

Greater User Experience

Last but not least, image SEO creates better user experiences.

Have you ever clicked on a website, then waited multiple seconds for the web page to load? Of course you have, it’s happened to all of us. What do you typically do in these situations? If you’re like most people, you immediately navigate to a different website.

Good news: optimized images load faster, which means your website visitors won’t have to wait around to view your content. The result? You’ll retain more of the traffic you generate.

Optimized images will help you give the visually impaired better experiences, too. Screen readers can interpret alt text, which means those with poor vision will be able to understand what your images contain. This can make the time they spend on your website more enjoyable.

The benefits above aren’t hypothetical. I’ve personally experienced the power of image SEO.

For example, at the time of this writing, one of my infographics ranks number one for its target keyword. And I accomplished this after only blogging for two months!

How did this happen? I designed a quality image and optimized it for search engines. In the rest of this article, I’ll teach you how to optimize your images so you can achieve something similar.

How to Optimize Images for SEO

Now that you know why Image SEO is important, let’s talk about ways to optimize original and stock photos for search engines. Here are six tips to implement ASAP:

The Importance of Structured Data for Image SEO

We need to start by talking about structured data.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, structured data is a type of code that can be added to your website’s HTML. The purpose? To help search engines understand your image content on a deeper level.

As we previously discussed, when search engines understand your images they’ll rank them higher in image search results. This can lead to an avalanche of quality traffic to your site.

Image structured data can include image file size, format, name, and alt text details.

We’ll talk more about these things in the next few sections. For now, just commit to adding them to your images. The boost in traffic your site receives will be more than worth the effort.

Choose the Right Image Files and Sizes

One of the best ways to improve your image SEO efforts is to choose the right formats and sizes for your image files. Here’s what I suggest:

Image Formats

Some of the most popular image formats on the internet are JPEG, PNG, and GIF.

JPEGs are the go-to option for most websites. Just know that their quality decreases with file size. PNGs are kind of like turbocharged JPEGS. They support millions of colors and look fantastic. This makes them the ideal choice for complex illustrations and graphics. GIFs are great for animated images.

(Note: Google Images supports all three of these image file formats, so no worries there.)

Quality vs. Size

The images on your website need to look good, but not take 10 years to load. To make this happen, you need to strike the perfect balance between image quality and image size.

What’s the secret sauce? Start with the highest quality images you can find. Then resize them so the image dimensions are an exact match for the space in which they’ll be published.

I have to be honest, though, this might not be enough. So you’ll need to use…

Image Compression Tools

You’ve taken the time to resize images, but your site is still slow.

Try compressing your images as well. This will reduce their file sizes by either removing irrelevant bytes of information from each image, or simply rewriting the images in ways that save space.

There are tons of tools you can use to compress your images. I’ll cover a few of them in a later section of this guide. Can’t wait? Check out TinyPNG, JPEG Optimizer, Optimizilla, or Smush.

Name Your Images to Improve SEO

When’s the last time you thought about image file names?

If you want to succeed at image optimization—and enjoy all of the image SEO benefits above—you need to start thinking about each and every image name you choose.

Fortunately, naming images is easy. Choose image titles that are relevant and short. In other words, make sure the titles you choose describe the image in as few words as possible. If you can work in a keyword or two, great! But don’t overdo it or Google will think your image is spam.

Create Alt Text for the Images on Your Website

Alt text is an important part of image SEO.

But what is alt text? Simple: alt text is a piece of text that describes an image. It’s sometimes referred to as “alternative text” or “alt attributes” or even “alt tags”. All terms mean the same thing.

Great, but why is alt text so valuable? There are a few different reasons

First, Google won’t rank your pictures, infographics, etc. on Google images without alt text. This is because search engines don’t have eyes. They need alt text to understand what images look like.

Second, alt text helps visually impaired users engage with websites via screen readers. The more accessible your site is, the bigger your target audience becomes, which can lead to more sales.

And third, alt text will improve your SEO efforts by giving Google more information about your website. The extra details will help Google understand the context of individual web pages. When this happens, Google will be more likely to rank your content because it understands what it’s about.

Here are three tips to optimize your alt text:

Keep it Short: Your alt text shouldn’t be an entire paragraph. In fact, it shouldn’t include more than 125 characters, as additional characters will get cut off by your user’s screen reader of choice.
Be Descriptive: You need to make the most of the 125 characters you use. How do you do that? Explain how your image looks in descriptive, yet easy to understand language.
Include Keywords: If possible, include keywords in your alt text. But remember, keyword stuffing harms the user experience and makes Google less likely to rank your website in image search.

To recap, missing alt text will prevent your images from appearing in Google image search. Fortunately, alt text is easy to create. Just keep it short and descriptive, and feature relevant keywords.

Responsive Image Techniques to Use for SEO

Here’s a stat for you: 45.59% of internet traffic in North America comes from mobile devices.

Your images need to look good on iPhones, Galaxy Tabs, Surface Pros, etc. If they don’t, a huge portion of your target audience will not enjoy their time on your website.

You won’t excel in your image SEO efforts either. Search engines prefer to rank web pages with responsive images because it means their users will have more enjoyable web experiences.

Luckily, there’s an easy solution: use responsive images to elevate your SEO efforts.

A responsive image is any image that can alter its size and resolution depending on the screen it’s displayed on. So images on a 6.7 inch Google Pixel 8 Pro will look just as good as images on a 16.2 inch MacBook Pro. And all users will see the images on your site the way you intend.

The question is, how do you make your images responsive? Some website hosts will automatically do this for you. If your web host lacks this feature, you can add this HTML code to your images instead:

What’s an Image Sitemap?

According to Google, image sitemaps are:

“A way of telling Google about other images on your site, especially those that we might not otherwise find (such as images your site reaches with JavaScript code).”

Put simply, an image sitemap is a file that lists URLs for every image on a website. They help search engines discover, index, and ultimately, rank images in search results. As such, they’re essential to image SEO—especially if you want your images to appear on Google Images.

There are two ways to create an image sitemap: manually or with a sitemap generator tool.

To create an image sitemap manually, follow Google’s instructions at the link above. (And don’t forget to use the included image sitemap tags.) To create an image sitemap with a sitemap generator tool, choose the tool you want to use and follow the tool’s directions. (I’d love to be more specific, but every sitemap generator tool is different. So following each tool’s directions is best.)

Once you’ve created your image sitemap, submit it to Google via the Google Search Console. This will make sure Google receives your sitemap, can index the images, and will include them in image search.

Top Image Optimization Tools

Ready to optimize images for search engines? Then you need to invest in a tool or two. Don’t worry, you won’t have to scour Google to find the right ones. I’m going to give you four quality options right now:

TinyPNG

TinyPNG is one of the most popular tools in the space. With it, you can easily compress WedP, JPEG and PNG image formats. In fact, TinyPNG will let you upload and compress 20 images at one time. Once your images are compressed you can download them to your computer or Dropbox account, which is convenient. (Note: to resize images that are greater than 5MB you’ll need to become a paid subscriber.)

JPEG Optimizer

With JPEG Optimizer, you can compress JPEGs, PNGs, and GIFs; then convert them into other image formats. The tool is easy to use—you simply drag and drop your images and set your parameters. Like TinyPNG, you can upload 20 images at one time for free. Overall, it’s a solid tool for image SEO.

Optimizilla

Optimizilla claims to use a “smart combination of the best optimization and lossy compression algorithms to shrink JPEG, GIF and PNG images to the minimum possible size while keeping the required level of quality.” Sounds good to me! Simply upload your images and hit the compress button. One of the best things about this tool is it features a slider, which will help you compare before and after images. That way you know if the compressed image matches the quality of the uncompressed one.

Optimole

When it comes to image optimization tools you can’t go wrong with Optimole. The platform will help you compress and resize images. But it will also help you organize them via the Optimole digital asset management (DAM) service. This makes it a more feature-rich tool than others (and more expensive.) Luckily, it’s still pretty affordable, as plans start at just $19.08 a month.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget to add structured data to your images after you compress them. Smaller image dimensions are important, but your reduced visuals still need alt text for SEO purposes.

Bonus: Best Design Agencies to Produce Blog Images

Your website needs top-level imagery, but you don’t have to create all the images yourself. There are quality design services you can hire to do it for you.

Two of the best are Kapa99 and DesignPickle:

Kapa99

Forget about stock photos. With Kapa99, you can get unlimited graphic design help from flesh and blood humans—all for a moderate monthly fee. Basically, you tell Kapa99 what you want/need.

Then a team of talented designers will create the images you request in 12 to 48 hours. See something you don’t like? Simply tell Kapa99 and they’ll make the revisions, no questions asked. You can even follow progress via the platform’s Kanban-style project management tool. All in all, Kapa99 is a fantastic resource for small businesses and content marketing agencies who need access to original, high-end images on a regular basis. Just make sure you can afford to pay $499 or more per month.

DesignPickle

DesignPickle will also help you avoid overused stock images. All you have to do is pay your monthly fee; then you can request as many graphics, custom illustrations, presentations, and/or edited videos as your heart desires.

DesignPickle’s team of designers is top notch and can handle just about any design-related task you throw at them. Unlimited revisions are also built into the monthly price. Like Kapa99, DesignPickle features an intuitive project management tool that makes it easy to commission jobs, review work, and otherwise facilitate the design process. DesignPickle plans start at $650 a month.

Kapa99 and DesignPickle are excellent resources. I’ve personally used both and can speak for the quality of their work. But remember, these companies are in the design business, not the image optimization business. Once you receive images from them you need to add structured data. If you don’t, your image SEO efforts will fall short and you won’t garner attention from search engines.

Frequently Asked Questions about Image SEO

What are the most important image file formats for the web?

JPEGs, PNGs, and GIFs are the most used—each for different reasons. JPEGs offer a good mix of size and quality. PNGs are excellent image formats, too. They also offer lossless compression, which is a major plus. And GIFs will allow you to display animations on your website. More recently, WebP images have become popular. They’re recommended by Google, maintain quality after heavy compression, and can even display motion, which makes WebPs an extremely versatile image file.

How do I choose the right image quality and file size?

You need to find a balance between quality and size. The images you use should look professional, but they shouldn’t affect website performance. In most cases, the solution is to start with the highest quality image possible; then compress it to an adequate file size. This should allow you to maintain image quality and super-fast website speeds. As always, a bit of experimentation is required.

What is the ALT text, and why is it important for SEO?

Alt text is a form of structured data that tells search engines what an image contains. The alt text for your images might contain information regarding image subjects, colors, and other details. Alt text is important because it will make your website more accessible to visually impaired individuals. As such, alt text can help create better user experiences, which is why search engines value it. Speaking of search engines, images with alt text are more likely to rank on Google Images. Don’t forget it!

How do I create an image sitemap?

There are two ways to create an image sitemap: manually or with a sitemap generator tool. To create one manually, follow these instructions. To create one with a sitemap generator tool, choose the solution you want to use, then follow the solution’s directions. Pretty simple stuff.

What are responsive images, and why are they important?

A responsive image is any image that can adapt to the specific screen it’s viewed on. They’re important because your target audience uses a variety of devices to peruse your website: smartphones, tablets, laptop computers, etc. If your images don’t adjust to these screens your website will look less than professional, which will lead to higher-than-average bounce rates, lower rankings in SERPs, and less traffic. Because of these things, responsive images are critical to image SEO.

Reach Your Target Audience With Image SEO

There’s no doubt about it, image SEO will help you attract more traffic from search engines.

Thankfully, image SEO isn’t rocket science. All you have to do is add structured data to the images you use, find the balance between your images’ quality and size, make sure all of the images on your website are responsive, and create your image sitemap.

You can do those things, right?

Of course you can! But if you don’t want to do them—you’re a busy person with important things to do, after all—I’m happy to lend a helping hand. Hire me to improve your site’s image SEO. Then we can work together to create amazing content that drives even more traffic. Let’s talk!