Last time, in Part 1, we talked about how to help Google see what’s in the your images on your website. This time we’ll talk about another part of SEO which affects your images – metadata – and how to speed up your website images to get a boost in your search rankings.
To make sure your images have the best chance of being found, try these tips:
- Metadata – Use it or lose it! – You can fill in metadata for your images as another way to describe what’s featured in them. If you’re using Windows, you can right click on the image, go to Properties and then edit the fields under “Details” tab at the top of the window. The most important one to note is “Tags” where you will want to put things that are featured in the photo. This can help the images to get found in Google Image Search and other search engines which process it. If you’re not worried about showing up in these results, use an image optimisation tool to remove this field to make your images smaller so they load even faster!
- Use the right size photo for the job – Don’t upload a giant full-resolution image straight from your camera that’s 4000+ pixels wide when you only need a small one. Website images rarely need to be more than 2000 pixels (wide or tall) maximum and are most commonly found under 1000 pixels. You can use software such as Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.Net to resize images before uploading. Some website platforms, such as WordPress can resize images and create small thumbnails for you automatically. If you or your website do not resize it, the full size image will always be loaded, (even if you only need the image to be the same size as a stamp!) which is bad for your website speed ratings.
During our free website consultations you can speak to our designers and marketing experts about how to make your website load faster and get better search rankings. To arrange a free, no commitment website design consultation, please call 01646 682676.
