Multimedia plays an ever increasing role in how search engines and visitors alike view our websites and blogs. Without a diverse portfolio of content, users will inevitably grow tired of what we have to offer. Various forms of multimedia are naturally suited for sharing via new mediums like social media, which makes their inclusion even more important. As search engines become pickier and pickier about each element displayed on our websites, finding ways to ensure that the best impression is left is absolutely crucial. Today, we’ll talk about several image optimizations that are absolutely necessary for each image published to your website.

Compress Every Image

Size and bandwidth are two critical elements for any website. Not only can these variables be important from the perspective of web hosting and bandwidth allocation, but they are also important for the user in terms of speed. Images that take forever to load can lead to visitors pinging websites other than your own for the same information. With a variety of compression tools available online and for download, there is no excuse for you to be using uncompressed imagery on any part of your website.

Structure Every Image URL

In order for search engines to adequately categorize all content on your website – including images – it is important that the URL structure of each image be designed appropriately. Not only does this relate to the broader URL of each image, but also the file name. Each file name should be appropriately titled and as descriptive as possible. WordPress and other content management systems provide plenty of ways in which to customize the remainder of the default URL structure. Engaging in these two important actions takes virtually no time at all and will ensure that your images are properly optimized for search and beyond.

Use Alt Text in Every Image

As important as it is for search engines and crawlers to be able to tell as much about your images as possible, many people forget about alt text. This is the first and primary place where search engines looks to find out more about your image when in the process of pinging websites and pages. Generally, the alt text is used to describe in just a few words the basis of the image. It can sometimes be a repeat of the file name, or otherwise include a couple of important keywords for connotation.

Use Descriptions in Every Image

The descriptions for images can be used to provide even more information about images that can be seen by users and search engines alike. On WordPress and Wiki sites, for instance, clicking on an image will provide a description of the image on the attachment page. Additionally, this information comes in handy for search engines that want to analyse every bit of information they can find about an image in order to accurately categorize it. People use the description for all sorts of things, such as telling where the photo was taken, with what device and what the image in question displays.