Image optimisation is more crucial for websites than you can imagine. It doesn’t matter whether you are running an eCommerce store, personal website, or blogging website; image optimisation is always essential.
Usually, some web owners undermine the importance of image optimisation. That’s why they don’t bother. However, they make a huge mistake that costs them a lot.
Before exploring the tips for image optimisation, let’s look at its benefits.
- Image optimisation improves the loading speed of websites.
- It enhances the SEO score of websites.
- It reduces the burden on hosting servers.
- It effectively helps you communicate the message.
- It boosts conversions.
- It improves user experience.
Now coming to the tips for image optimisation!
- Select the Most Useful Image Format
The first ever thing you should do is choose the correct image format. Most SEO experts and webmasters just download images from stock websites or other platforms and upload them to the websites without converting them into suitable formats. There are better ways of running a website. They must know the image format to explore whether or not the images will be opened on most devices. Moreover, they should also know which format is the best according to their website’s type.
The most reliable image formats supported by almost every device are PNG, JPG, and GIF. PNG is the best for eCommerce stores where you need to show the product images in the best quality, as PNG images are much better in quality than other formats. JPG, on the other hand, is favourable for blogging websites where you have to upload tons of pictures because they also show the images in their best quality. Still, their sizes are comparatively lesser than PNG. Finally, the GIF format is suitable for decorative images and thumbnails.
Your needs and website type should decide which format you should select.
- Add Images to Sitemaps
Search engines suggest websites create image sitemaps, as this practice can help search engines acquire more information about the uploaded images. Adding images to sitemaps can also enhance the chances of ranking the websites higher than you can imagine. In case you don’t add your photos to the sitemaps, you won’t be able to enjoy better ranking over various engines. The sitemaps work as SEO score boosters which can improve the ranking of your web pages. That’s how you can enjoy more organic traffic, which is the ultimate goal of every website.
- Compress Images Before Uploading Them
Here comes the most helpful and practical tip. Compress every image before uploading it to your website. When you compress photo sizes, you give your website a huge favour. Image compression serves a lot of benefits. That’s why almost every website owner prefers to compress image sizes so that quality isn’t affected.
Below are some of the most common benefits of the image compression process.
- Reduces burden on servers.
- Decreases website’s loading time.
- Improves user experience.
However, you must consider image quality while compressing pictures. Sometimes, people only bother with the quality while compressing images. Instead, they just focus on the size. This practice could be harmful to websites as visitors won’t be able to get the message. So, don’t compromise on quality while compressing image size.
- Carefully Select the Image Dimensions
Resizing your images is also necessary to ensure your images work well on every screen and do not overlap your content. Therefore, you should always clearly mention the dimensions in the code. When you define the height and width, you improve user experience. Mentioning the size also allows you to avoid overlapping issues which can help your website perform better. In addition, this practice can also beautify your website’s layout.
- Include Relevant Alt Tags
Search engines’ crawlers don’t analyze picture elements. Therefore, they need help knowing what your images are all about. That’s where alt tags come in handy. Alt tags tell search engine crawlers about each image. These tags improve the website’s visibility over search engines and improve SEO value.
While writing alt tags, it could be helpful if you add keywords so that the search engines show your images whenever people will search for images using those keywords. Adding the alt tags can be very effective for eCommerce stores as they can make the products more visible than ever.
Wrapping Up
Usually, people consider image optimisation as the process of reducing image sizes to a certain level. However, it is more than just image compression. It is making images more impactful over the search engines and making websites run smoother. So, rely on more than just one technique of image optimisation.
To optimize images for better website performance, select the suitable format, add them in the sitemaps, clearly mention the dimensions, compress them, and add alt tags. Together all these things can help improve your website performance. With the help of all these techniques, you will get all the benefits mentioned in the introduction.