In the digital age, images are becoming more and more popular as they are an easy way for people to digest information. Over the years, the number of images on the internet has significantly increased.
It has been noted that the number of images on the internet has doubled in the past year. Images are now shared more than ever on social media. It has been reported that Instagram has over 80 million images shared every day.
Images are also important for marketers because they are more likely to engage people. According to research, 87% of all Facebook posts in 2014 engaged people.
If you want to get more engagement from your images, you should try to optimize them for your website. Here are some tips to help you get started.
1. Save images in the right format
The most common image file types are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Each of these file types has its own best use case.
• JPEG: Best used for photographs and images with a lot of color. JPEGs are also the file type to use when you need to compress large images.
• PNG: Best used for simple graphics, logos, and images with text. PNGs support transparent backgrounds, so they’re great for adding logos to your website.
• GIF: Best used for simple animations and images with few colors. GIFs are also the only file type that supports animation.
When saving images for your website, be sure to save them in the correct format.
2. Compress images to reduce file size
If you upload large image files to your website, it can slow down the load time of your pages. And a slow website can decrease search rankings and increase bounce rates.
To prevent this, it’s important to compress your images before uploading them to your website. Image compression reduces the file size of your images, which in turn reduces the load time of your web pages.
There are a number of tools available to help you compress your images, including Adobe Photoshop, TinyPNG, and ImageOptim. These tools allow you to reduce the file size of your images without sacrificing quality.
3. Choose the right file name
Before you upload an image to your website, make sure to choose the right file name. This is important for a few reasons.
First, it helps search engines understand what the image is about. Second, it helps people understand what the image is about. And third, it can help improve your website’s load time.
When choosing a file name, be sure to use descriptive keywords that are relevant to the image. For example, if you’re uploading a photo of a red apple, you could name the file “red-apple.jpg.”
Avoid using generic file names like “image1.jpg” or “photo.jpg.” Not only are these file names unhelpful for search engines and website visitors, but they can also lead to duplicate file names if you have more than one image on your site.
4. Use the right alt text
Alt text is a brief description of your image that helps search engines understand what the image is about. Alt text is also used by screen readers to describe images to people who are visually impaired.
When you upload an image to your website, you’ll have the option to add alt text. It’s important to use the right alt text for your images, as this can help improve your website’s SEO.
To add alt text to your images, simply describe what the image is about in a few words. You don’t need to get too fancy with your alt text — just keep it simple and to the point.
5. Use an image sitemap
An image sitemap is a file that lists all the images on your website. This makes it easier for search engines to find and index your images.
To create an image sitemap, you can use a tool like Yoast SEO or Google’s Search Console. You can also create one manually by adding a line of code to your website’s robots.txt file.
Once you’ve created your image sitemap, you can submit it to search engines like Google and Bing. This will help them find and index your images more quickly.
6. Use lazy loading
Lazy loading is a technique that defers the loading of non-essential resources (like images) at page load time. Instead, images are only loaded when they come into the visitor’s view as they scroll down the page.
With lazy loading, images that are at the top of the page are loaded as usual, but images further down the page are not loaded until the visitor scrolls down and the images come into view.
This can help reduce the initial load time of your web pages and improve the overall performance of your website.
Most modern website platforms and content management systems have lazy loading built in, or you can use a lazy loading plugin to add this functionality to your site.
7. Use responsive images
Responsive images are a type of image file that automatically adjust to the size of the screen they’re being viewed on.
This is an important feature for websites, because it means that your images will look good on any device, whether it’s a desktop computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.
To create responsive images, you can use the HTML5 “srcset” attribute, which allows you to specify multiple image files for different screen sizes, and the “sizes” attribute, which tells the browser how much space the image will take up on the page.
You can also use the “picture” element, which works in a similar way to the “img” element, but allows you to specify multiple sources for the image.
8. Use the right image size
The size of your images affects your website’s loading time. If you use images that are too large, it can slow down your website, which can have a negative impact on your search ranking.
Make sure to use the right image size based on how you plan to use the image on your website. For example, if you’re using an image as a background for a section of your website, it will need to be larger than if you’re using it as a thumbnail in a blog post. This is especially important for professional niches like Life Coach Websites, where high-quality, well-optimized images help convey credibility and resonate with coaching clients.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure what size to use, you can use an image editing tool like Adobe Photoshop or an online tool like Canva to resize your images. Most website builders also have built-in tools that allow you to resize images.
9. Use a content delivery network (CDN)
A CDN is a network of servers located all around the world. When you use a CDN to host your images, the images are distributed across the network of servers. This ensures that your images are delivered quickly, no matter where in the world your website visitors are located.
In addition to speeding up the delivery of your images, a CDN can also help to reduce the load on your web server. This can help to improve the overall performance and speed of your website.
There are many CDNs available, and some are free to use. Some of the most popular CDNs include Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, and KeyCDN.
Conclusion
Your website is a reflection of your business, and you want it to be a good one. The tips above will help you optimize images to make your site faster, more attractive, and more user-friendly.
