Are you aware you can rank in Google using image optimization?
It’s true!
Just like you can rank your blog posts on Google using Search Engine Optimization, you can rank on Google using Image SEO as well.
In fact, Google Image Search is on the rise. According to a March 2020 source, Google Images are responsible for over 25% of all web traffic.
Did you know Google removed the “View Image” button and replaced it with a direct link to your website?
Clearly, you are missing out on website traffic if you don’t optimize your images.
This guide covers the importance of Unique Images, Image Compression, and Structured Data in image SEO.
This post will tell you how to rank on Google and boost traffic using images.
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Create Unique Images
There are certain factors that boost the chances of your images ranking:
Make sure your image is high quality. Clarity counts.
Make sure your image is high on your web page. The higher “above the fold” your image is, the more important it looks to Google and the more visibility it will get.
Make sure your image is unique. This means your image should not be a widely-used stock photo. Canva is a popular graphic design tool that allows you to create your own unique images.
You should also avoid using someone else’s image. Today, most webmasters have their names or watermarks on their photos. If you use someone’s photo without giving source credit which includes a link to the site where the image originated, you can be in violation of copyright restrictions.
In fact, my friend’s guest author used someone’s image without consent, and my friend, the host blogger, was fined.
Make sure your image is relevant.You might enjoy looking at flowers, for instance, but if the bouquet is unrelated to a post about how to make money, avoid using those tulips.
Make sure your image is the right size. I prefer using 1024 x 683 pixels.
In 2021, Google will be prioritizing ranking according to “Mobile First.” In other words, which web content is optimized for mobile?
You don’t want your image to be too big for the smartphone or it will look distorted. Scaling your image to the right size is important for SEO.
Make sure when you upload the image, you name the image or video whatever you want your keyword to be.
This guide assumes you already have a keyword you want to rank on Google.
There are many keyword tools you can use to find keywords you can rank for. I recommend the MozBar which is my personal favorite.
The MozBar is a free Google Chrome extension that gives you unlimited search engine queries. When you download the MozBar, you get additional perks like competitive analysis. Here is a MozBar tutorial.
A quick refresher on finding a keyword: Make sure the monthly search volume is high but the online competition difficulty level is low.
If your image is saved under a different name than your keyword, right click and you can rename your image.
Note: This step won’t work on a MAC since you can’t right-click on a MAC.
Put the keyword in the Alt Text, the Title, and the Description. I’m writing a post on the importance of entrepreneurship, so that was my keyword.
Step 2: Image name
Make sure your image name contains hyphens if your keyword is more than one word long. My keyword is medium tail since it contains three words.
Look above the red boxes in the screenshot. You see “Original image: keyword hyphen keyword hyphen keyword.jpg.”
This is how yours should look. Mine reads “importance-of-entrepreneurship.jpg” and follows this formula.
It should go without saying that your spelling is accurate.
Does .jpg matter? If you are given a choice of a .jpg image or a .png image, does it matter which you pick?
Yes, .jpg has better quality than .png. In addition, .jpg are more SEO-friendly than .png. Save .png for transparent images and screenshots.
Once your keyword is in your post, you can adjust the image’s size here:
Click Preview/Mobile
Are you a WordPress blogger? WordPress lets you see how your image will look on a mobile device.
Image SEO: Optimizing images For Incredible Rankings in Google Share on X
Looks good! I don’t need to alter the dimensions of the image.
It gets better!
This post offers empirical proof in the form of data that these tips work.
This Ahrefs screenshot shows my content is in Position 1 for the keyword term “good vibes quotes” with a monthly search of 2,400.