{"id":28288,"date":"2018-02-02T11:35:54","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T11:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hosting.nl\/blog\/images-and-search-engine-optimization-seo\/"},"modified":"2023-11-28T08:26:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T08:26:17","slug":"images-and-search-engine-optimization-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hosting.nl\/en\/blog\/images-and-search-engine-optimization-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Images and search engine optimization (SEO)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Optimal scoring of your website in search engines like Google depends -in addition to proper text writing- also on<\/span> the attention paid to the images on the website. Whereas SEO factors are often the responsibility of (technical) developers or marketers (linking with social media channels), in this case you are mostly in control yourself.<\/p>\n

Most people are very visually oriented , and a nice<\/span> bonus is that an image makes your article even more appealing. Successful content almost always includes good images. And images make your article or page more likely to be shared because these days they are automatically loaded with posts on Facebook and Twitter, for example. This in turn affects search engine rankings.<\/p>\n

Use the alt text<\/h2>\n

You can give the image a description<\/span> with the alt text (also called the alt attribute in HTML) if you are logged into the CMS. People with visual impairments can have software read it when they visit a Web site, but search engines also read this alt text to discover what the subject of the image is. Should the image also contain a link, this alt text is also the name of the link. Then make sure this alt text also includes a description of the destination page. Clear for the visitor, but also essential for Google. Therefore, in your CMS, create a descriptive alt text with relevant words.<\/p>\n

Clear file name<\/h2>\n

Also, give your images a clear name that describes what the image is about with hyphens. This also allows Google to figure out what the image is about and link the relevance to the title of your page or the topic of your article. Again, don’t overdo this: 3 to 4 words to an image is enough. For example, mill-holland-polder.jpg<\/p>\n

\"save-photo-mill\"<\/p>\n

Don’t make images too large<\/h2>\n

Impatient as we are, we are not waiting for websites that load slowly. Especially not when we visit a website with our smartphone. Saving images correctly is again part of this. Make sure your image is no larger than necessary on the Internet. Often 2000 pixels wide is already good enough for fullscreen. Unless you’re the lucky owner of a 4k or even 5k monitor, because then we’ll go to resolutions of 5120 x 2880 pixels. Through websites such as
\n fotoverkleinen.nl<\/strong>
\n<\/a> or
\n reSmushit<\/strong>
\n<\/a> you can optimize images even further. Professional programs such as Photoshop also allow you to save images for screen, removing unnecessary and therefore incriminating information.<\/p>\n

Proper extensions<\/h2>\n

Various file formats can be selected when saving images. For best optimization, save images for web as:<\/p>\n