Search engine optimization remains one of the most important components for any blog, business or brand that wishes to generate more organic visibility and traffic. With so many elements in the broader process to consider, it can be easy to forget about any one aspect of it. While a huge amount of focus is dedicated to improving the look and flow of written content, technical SEO is just as important. This happens to be true not only with text and written content visible to readers, but with images and multimedia as well.

Today, we’ll look at some simple steps any website should take to ensure that their images are optimized for search engines.

Give Them Relevant Names

Images simply cannot be analyzed the same way as text; if you want search engines to better categorize all of your content, then you need to give them a helping hand! The easiest way to begin optimizing your images is by pinging search engines with file names that actually make sense. Rather than leaving the auto-generated file name from a photo you just took, be sure to give it a proper naming format. For example, you might name a picture of your new shoes “new-nike-shoes.jpeg” rather than leaving it as “IMG4758.jpeg”. This will make a big difference in how well your images rank in searches and can boost your overall content and pages in terms of SEO as well.

Optimize Your Format

Remember that SEO isn’t just about which words you choose to use in posts and pages: it’s about the broader user experience. Ease of use is important, and one of the biggest aspects of this is how quickly and efficiently your pages render for visitors. With an unprecedented number of people using mobile devices, you want your pages and images to load as quickly as possible. Wherever there is an opportunity to reduce image file sizes without losing meaningful quality, you should act decisively. PNG files are great in terms of quality, but they tend to be several times larger than GIFs or JPEGs: if you can do without them, go for it. While logos, text and other similar elements need that crisper quality, images and photos can be compressed and converted without any real loss in viewing quality.

Be Detailed

There are a number of ways that you can efficiently start pinging search engines with context for your images. We already discussed file names, but there are other options as well. Alt text is incredibly important, as it is the best way to describe an image; it can also render when images fail to load. Another option available to further convey meaning to both search engines and readers is the caption. By including a caption below each photo, visitors can better understand what exactly the image is meant to convey, and search engines will also enjoy additional context.

While it can be all too easy to focus on sheer text that is meant to be read, there are other aspects of SEO that are just as important. What search engines read about your pages is crucial: by following these three tips, you can improve your image SEO, give search engines more content and create additional opportunities to rank in SERPs.