For SEO effective images, Consider relevance to the text.
For example, insert a high-quality image created according to the content of the text “SEO measures will make it easier for your site to be displayed higher” immediately after that text.
On the other hand, if you insert a low-quality image, the display of the image may be slow or the content may be difficult to understand.
If that happens, the user’s convenience will decrease, and the quality of the web page itself where the image is posted will decrease.
As a result, it becomes difficult to be evaluated by Google.
To avoid this bad situation, insert SEO-friendly images to improve the quality of your content.
Based on this point, this time, I would like to explain the points that are easy for beginners to understand, focusing on the points to make images effective for SEO.
Table of Contents
Points to make images effective for SEO
For SEO-friendly images, Consider relevance to text To do.
For example, let’s say that the content of the text is spelled out as “Promoting SEO measures in consideration of user convenience”.
A high-quality image created according to the spelled wording is inserted directly below the text.
This makes it easier for users to understand the content because they can perceive not only textual information but also visual information.
on the other hand, If you provide low-quality images, it will reduce user convenience, so you will be more likely to receive low ratings from Google.
In order to avoid such a situation, consider “originality”, “alternative text setting”, “concise file name”, “file size”, “image quality”, “file format”, “use of image sitemap”, and “mobile-friendliness”. , and let it recognize by inserting a higher quality image.
In this way, making images easy to see and understand, and adding usability and crawlability is the key to maximizing SEO effects.
- Increase relevance to the text
- show originality
- Set alternative text (alt attribute)
- Keep file names simple
- make it load faster
- provide high quality
- Make it a universal file format
- Use image sitemaps
- make it mobile friendly
Read Also: Points for measuring the effect of SEO
Increase relevance to text
To make the text more relevant, Insert the image near (perimeter) of the relevant text.
For example, insert an image created according to the content of the text “design the site with consideration for expertise” directly below the text.
That way, users can better understand the content by not only recognizing textual information but also related visual information.
As a result, user convenience is improved, so it is easier to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, supplementing the text sentences and creating images that improve the clarity of the content is the key to making images effective for SEO.
on the other hand, Inserting irrelevant images may make the content difficult to understand and reduce user convenience, which may reduce the SEO effect.
show originality
To show originality, Consider tastes that are not used by competitors to do.
For example, using special software such as illustrator, create your own illustration image that matches the content of the text before and after.
This will create a highly original image (original image).
If you insert the image into the content, the web page will be finished with originality considered, so it will be easier to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, adding diversity so as not to overlap with other sites as much as possible and creating images that improve user convenience is the key to making images effective for SEO.
on the other hand, Using images similar to those of your competitors will lead to lower user engagement and fewer SEO benefits.
More to the point, for example, it’s common to have an image on your page that’s the same as a free image used on a competitor’s page.
In this case, if the user visits the competitor’s page and then visits their own page and sees the same image, they may get tired of seeing the image on their own page and leave the page sooner or stay longer.
If that happens, user engagement will decline, so the SEO effect cannot be expected accordingly.
To avoid such situations, It is important to promote SEO measures to use original images (photographs) that are different from other sites as much as possible.
By the way, in order to show originality, there is also a way to use paid images other than creating your own images.
Even paid images may overlap with other sites, but there are fewer opportunities to use them than free images, so it will be easier to secure originality.
Set alternative text (alt attribute)
To set the alt text, Write the alt attribute in img element of the HTML tag To do.
For example, if you have an image of a cat jumping, you would write the phrase “cat jumps from the floor onto the table” in the alt attribute of the img element, which is the HTML tag for displaying that image.
Then you can set the alt text.
A web page with alt text will be able to extract image information as text, so it will be more convenient for users and more likely to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, writing alternative text and creating an image that considers usability is the key to creating an image that is effective for SEO.
On the other hand, if the alt attribute is not written, it will not be compatible with browsers that read out text (voice browsers) such as screen readers, so accessibility will be reduced.
If that happens, the user’s convenience will decrease, and the SEO effect will not be expected accordingly.
By the way, alt text stuffed with SEO keywords is more likely to be considered spam and penalized.
Keep file names simple
For short file names, Consider a string that clearly indicates the content of the image to do.
For example, if you have an image of a sleeping cat, name the image file “cat-sleeping.jpg”.
This makes it easier to recognize the content of the image from the file name, which improves crawlability and usability and makes it easier to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, giving a concise file name and creating an image whose content can be identified from the character string is the key to creating an image that is effective for SEO.
On the other hand, if the file name consists only of numbers, or if the file name has no theme, such as “picture.jpg”, the contents of the image cannot be guessed from the file name.
If so, Since the image is difficult for users and crawlers to recognize, the SEO effect cannot be expected accordingly.
Make it load faster
For faster loading, Reduce unnecessary resources.
For example, use assets other than images such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, such as CSS3 effects and web fonts, to express the content as much as possible.
By doing so, the image processing will be reduced, and the image file resource will be reduced accordingly.
As a result, it loads faster, which leads to improved user convenience and makes it easier to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, increasing the parts expressed by other assets and reducing the download capacity of the web page itself is the key to creating an image that is effective for SEO.
You can also reduce image file resources by using responsive image technology or AMP, changing the image quality settings when editing, or changing the image format when saving.
On the other hand, embedding text, and adding gradients and shadows to the image will increase the size of the image.
If such images increase, the download size of the web page will also increase, leading to a delay in loading speed, so the SEO effect will likely decrease.
By the way, if you use PageSpeed ​​Insights you can check the loading speed number and suggestions for making it load faster.
Provide high quality
To provide high-quality Use specialized sites that handle high-quality images To do. For example, download the photos you care about from the
The most famous professional site ” Pixabay “deals with high-quality images.
By embedding the downloaded photo as part of your content, you can provide a high-quality image.
As a result, content embedded with high-quality images attracts users, which increases user engagement and makes it easier to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, adopting high-quality images and creating images that enhance the quality of the content is the key to making images effective for SEO.
On the other hand, blurry and unclear Low-quality images do not maximize user engagement, leading to higher dropout rates, shorter dwell times, lower user engagement and poor SEO.
By the way, Pixabay sets its own image quality guidelines , and only selects and adopts images that comply with those guidelines.
So, all published images are basically of high quality.
If you have a specialized site that has its own image guidelines, not limited to Pixabay, there is a high possibility that you will be dealing with a lot of high-quality photos.
In addition, if you take your own photos with a camera that has a good lens, you will always have a high-quality image.
Make it a universal file format
For a universal file format, Consider image file formats supported by many browsers To do.
For example, we provide images in the “JPEG” file format, which is also supported by the popular Google Chrome browser and many other browsers.
By doing so, the image will be displayed in more browsers, and the user’s convenience will be secured accordingly, so the content that embeds the image will be more likely to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, adopting a common file format that is often used and making it an image that can be recognized by many browsers is the key to making it an effective image for SEO.
In addition to “JPEG”, “GIF” and “PNG” also image file formats supported by many browsers.
On the other hand, “WebP” and “JPEG XR” image file formats are still poorly supported by browsers.
Therefore, there will be cases where images are not displayed on the web in browsers that do not support those file formats.
that’s why, At this time, content that uses “WebP” and “JPEG XR” images may be less convenient for users and may not be expected to have SEO effects.
Use image sitemaps
To use an image sitemap, Create a sitemap marked up with special XML tags.
As you can see, we first write the XML namespace after the XML declaration and create an image sitemap marked up with dedicated XML tags such as “image: image” and “image:loc”.
Then submit the URL of the image sitemap file you created (eg sitemap-image.xml) through Search Console to facilitate image crawling.
That way, the information in the image will be easier to recognize, so if a high-quality image is recognized, the content embedded with that high-quality image will be more likely to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, using a dedicated sitemap to create an image that is easy for Google to recognize is the key to creating an image that is effective for SEO.
By the way, even if you don’t use an image sitemap, if the link structure is solid to some extent, the image will be recognized.
However, if the link structure is poor, the web page will be difficult to recognize due to low crawlability.
If that happens, it will be difficult for images embedded in web pages to be recognized.
To avoid such situations, The point is to promote SEO measures by making secondary use of image site map becomes.
make it mobile friendly
To be mobile-friendly, Fixed issues that failed the mobile-friendly test To do.
For example, when the problem “content width exceeds screen width” is pointed out, the width of the image may be the cause.
In this case, adjust the width of the image so that it fits within the width of the mobile browser.
Then, if you pass the mobile-friendly test again, your website is mobile-friendly.
If that happens, user convenience will improve, so it will be easier to be evaluated by Google.
In this way, adjusting for mobile and making images suitable for many devices is the key to making images effective for SEO.
On the other hand, if the width of the image protrudes greatly on a mobile browser, it will be difficult to grasp the entire content of the image.
If so, Since users feel stressed by content that includes images, it leads to a decrease in usability, and the SEO effect cannot be expected accordingly.
By the way, it is recommended to adopt a responsive design and make web content including images mobile friendly.
Summary: Insert SEO-friendly images to improve the quality of your content
Recognize high-quality images, and Get more out of your SEO.
For that reason, it is important to optimize the content including not only images but also text sentences.
Specifically, we first create high-quality content that takes into account the user’s search intent, the amount of information the user wants (completeness), the ease of obtaining it (convenience), credibility, and uniqueness.
Increasing such high-quality content and promoting SEO measures while adding expertise, authoritativeness, usability, and crawlability to make the site more reliable is the key to aiming for higher rankings.