While you might think that the text on your website is vital, you should also pay attention to your images. If you get them wrong, then your website and ranking will suffer miserably. So, why should you optimise your images?
Enhance page load speed
Visitors want things instantly and so, you need to make sure that your images are the right size. So, resize them so that they not only fit in with your website but load quickly. If your website takes longer than 2 seconds to load, then you are getting it wrong. Images are a crucial aspect of your site and that means that you need to get them right.
They can improve SEO
If you optimise your images then you will be doing your website a big favour as it can help to improve SEO. Google doesn’t appreciate slow websites and so, page load speed is just as important here as it is for users. So, if you optimise your images and improve speed, Google will thank you for it.
Increase Conversions
If you can improve your website ranking then it can mean that you can increase conversions. This is because as more people find your site, the percentage of sales will increase. A lot of research has been carried out in this area and page load speed, ranking and conversion all go hand in hand.
Name you Image Correctly
You might not think about your image name at all when you upload it to your site. However, this is something that you should think about. Don’t just stick with the standard names that images are given, take some time and rename them before uploading them. The reason for this is that it makes the images easier to manage and depending on where they appear online, they can also help to improve your SEO. Keep things consistent when optimising images by keeping with lowercase letters and numbers.
Captions and Alt Text
Another mistake that many people make is that they upload their images and think that their job is done. However, they forget to fill in the crucial information. In the same way as file names, you should add captions and Alt Text.
Alt Tags are not something that the average user will see when they visit your site. What they do, is give search engines an idea of what your images are about. So, once you have uploaded an image to your site, you should make sure that you fill in the Alternative Text field with a phrase that describes the image. It should also contain a keyword if possible.
Images are a vital aspect of your website and you should look at them in a different light. They are not there to look pretty or add some jazz to your site. In fact, they are the complete opposite because they really can make a difference to your ranking and all other aspects of success with your website.
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