Add Some - image alt attribute

How to optimize your images for SEO

The search engines not only work for texts but also for images. And image alt attribute field helps the images to rank up in the seach engines. Quix SEO section checks not only text fields but also focus keyphrase in the alt attributes of the images.

You may be wondering: what are image alt attributes? Why is it important to optimize images for SEO? And how do you do that? So, let’s find the details about what it is ahy is it needed.

What is an image alt attribute?

You can add an image alternate attribute – also called: an alt text or alt tag – to an image to show descriptive text in place if the image can’t be displayed to the visitor for any reason. This could be because visitors have turned off images in their web browsers. They could also be using a screen reader due to visual impairment. The image alt attribute ensures that no information gets lost in these situations. In addition, search engines use alt text to determine what’s on the image.

An alt text should contain enough information for search engines and people who can’t see the image to understand what the image represents. Keep in mind, though, that while the alt text needs to be descriptive, it also needs to be brief. Most screen readers seem to cut off an image alt text at around 125 characters.

Example : Let's check on an example to explain how an image alternate test should be.

Now, let’s consider three possible alt attributes for this image:

‘cycling’

‘A man cycling on road’

‘A blue t-shirt wearing man cycling a yellow cycle practising on road for a cycle race.’

Which one do you think is the best example of an alt attribute for this image? Although the first one is brief, it’s not descriptive enough. And the third one might be very descriptive, but it is way too long for the image. Number 2 is both descriptive and brief, and therefore a good example of an alt attribute for this image.

How to add alt attributes

With Quix page builder, adding an alternate text to image is very easy and simple. When you add an image, you'll find the alt text field. All you need to do is, fill up that blank field with an alternate text that resembles to the image and also works as a keyphrase text to rank up in the serch engines.

Why is it important?

We’ve seen why image optimization is important for your users, but why is it important for SEO?

With images your page will become a lot more attractive. And you can provide both users and search engines with a textual description of the image if you add an alt text. As we’ve seen before, this improves accessibility, but it also increases your chance of ranking in image search. And as seen in Google’s vision for the future of search, visual search is getting increasingly important, which means that ranking high in image search could turn out to provide you with a nice bit of traffic. So, if you have visual content, it might make sense to put image SEO higher on your to-do list.

How to optimize your images for SEO

We’ve discussed alt attributes, but this isn’t the only aspect of image SEO that’s important. If you want to fully optimize an image for SEO, there are lots of things you should do. Here, we’ll discuss a few basic tips on how to optimize your images for SEO.

• Add images to your text This one’s simple: you should try to add images to your site to make it more appealing. Images will also help readers and search engines understand your text better.

• Add alt text to the images As we said, you should always add an alt attribute or alt tag to your images. This ensures a descriptive text is shown in place if the image can’t be displayed to the visitor for any reason. In addition, it provides Google with a textual description of the image, which they use to rank your post in image search.

• Use focus keyphrase in the alt text Because search engines need context about an image to understand what’s on them – and to rank your page in image search – it’s important to use the focus keyphrase of your article in the alt text.

• Use focus keyphrase in the file name Google also uses the file name to determine what an image is about. That’s why you should also use your focus keyphrase in the file name. It’s simple: if your image shows dazzling fashion, the file name shouldn’t be 03826582082.jpg, but dazzling-fashion.jpg.

• Reduce file size Loading times are important for UX and SEO. The faster the site, the easier it is to visit and index a site. Images can have a huge impact on loading times. That’s why you should resize the image to how you want it displayed. For example, if you want to show 250×150 px image, you should scale the image to 250×150 px and not let the page load a full 2500×1500 px image.