Perfecting your website is a never-ending process that takes substantial work and knowledge. You may think that having a beautiful website that is mobile-friendly and features rich blogs and keywords is the trick to SEO success. But, in reality, this is just skimming the surface!
Thoughtful images complimenting your website’s content are important to your site’s overall look and user experience. Still, it is important to know that if these image files are not properly optimized, they can actually do more harm than good! Below, I will explain the main reasons to optimize all image files on your website.
Page Speed Improvements
Google puts a huge emphasis on your website’s overall speed and performance for both mobile and desktop views. Even if your site looks amazing once it loads, poor speeds and performance can gravely impact your overall SEO and rankings. Large image files crowding up your website are just one component of your website that oftentimes harms page speeds. Not only does Google take note of these performance issues, but they are also linked to higher bounce rates and overall lower conversion rates among users who are stuck waiting for your website to load.
With that being said, you should not simply remove the bulk of images from your website. Instead, optimize the image files! This allows for high performance while still keeping an attractive on-page appearance.
Get Your Images Found on Google
When people are asked to consider SEO, they commonly think that SEO simply means getting your website ranked highly for landing pages relating to specific keywords. While, yes, this is true, images should also be primed for SEO, enabling them to be found in image searches on Google!
By optimizing your images for search engines, you can break into the oftentimes untapped space of image search optimization. By ensuring that images are uploaded in the correct file type (usually JPEG), have a unique file name that is applicable to the image, and feature accurate alt text, you can improve both user experience and search engine image rankings. Any site can benefit from image search optimization, but this is especially important for e-commerce stores with unique photos of their products.
How Can I Optimize Images on My Website?
Optimizing images on your website is, believe it or not, a relatively simple process nowadays, thanks to various paid and free plugins supported by WordPress and other site builders. One of WordPress’s most popular image optimization plugins is WP-Optimize, allowing users to bulk optimize their site’s images in minutes with just a few clicks! No matter how you decide to optimize your site’s images, it is imperative that you ALWAYS back up your website ahead of time. Any major file updates such as this can lead to unforeseen problems and potential loss of files. It is always better to be safe than sorry!
Optimize Your Website and Images with Boston Web Marketing
Ensuring your website is high-performing and in line with SEO best practices can be burdensome, especially for business owners! Rather than struggle to keep up with the changes, contact Boston Web Marketing and allow our team of SEO and Web Design experts to develop and maintain a stunning website that is high-performing and brings in new leads.