When it comes to optimizing web pages for search engines, sometimes, we fail to consider image SEO aspects. It’s a commonly overlooked area since images are rarely the focus of many websites, except for aesthetic purposes. For you, it means that refining your SEO practice for images can end up significantly improving your website ranking in search engines. We’ve highlighted some essential ideas from Yoast that you can use to improve your image SEO – take a look at them and see where your website might fall short.

#1: Image size matters

Paula from Pixelstorm says :When talking about image size, there are two parts that you need to keep in mind: the image dimension and the actual file size. File size refers to the amount of storage that your image consumes when it loads, while image dimension refers to the height and width of an image, like 600×900 pixels or even 6000 x 9000 pixels.” These two components matter because they reflect how the image is displayed in a post. When the original image is too small for the HTML or CSS dimension specified in a post, the shown image might appear in low-resolution. The solution, however, is not to use high definition for everything – in fact, that is one thing you should avoid if you don’t want to lose your search rank.

Yes – that’s right. Your website could wind up getting poorly ranked when there are too many high definition images on a web page. Why? Because these images impact a user’s website loading time. The more images you have, the more time it takes for the website to load, and this would end up increasing your bounce rate. So, if low-resolution images are not good and high-resolution images can break your website, what should you do? First, change your image dimension to the exact specification that you’ve described in a post. If a 1200 x 1800 pixel is an appropriate size for your image, you don’t have to use a 3600 x 5400 pixel image. Another way to decrease loading time is to make sure that you compress your file size. You can also change your file format – JPG takes up the smallest amount of space, but you may compromise on quality when you choose this over PNG or TIFF.

#2: Optimize for responsive design

These days, your visitors may arrive at your website through different screens – from desktop computers to even televisions. They may also be using various operating systems or browsers, and all of these differences will impact how your web pages are viewed by your website visitors. Most modern websites are developed using responsive design principles to ensure that your website’s interface remains consistent across all devices.

Unsurprisingly, search engines favor websites that use responsive design principles. So, it’s crucial that your images are optimized for responsive design. In practice, this translates to using certain HTML attributes, such as “srcset” and “sizes”, that allows the images to automatically adjust their size according to the devices they are shown in.

#3: Always use captions

What are image captions? Image captions are descriptions of the image that can usually be found near the image when it shows up on a web page. When a search engine scans a web page, captions are one of the elements taken into consideration to determine how the page would rank when a user queries a keyword in the search bar.

Because of how vital the role of image caption is for a webpage, don’t forget to include the relevant keywords for your article when you’re writing a caption for images attached to the web page. A good image caption is factual, uses present tense, and describes precisely what is going on in the image in the most succinct way possible.

#4: Use alt-text

How is alt-text different from image captions? Alt-text is an HTML attribute that is intended for use by website visitors who use screen readers. Although the content of image captions and alt-text can be very similar, alt-text tends to be hidden from sighted users unless the website fails to load the image for some reason. Does that mean you have to choose from alt-text and image captions? Not exactly: Google prefers them both.

Images are ubiquitous in web pages, sometimes to the point that even text content is outnumbered by them. Failing to optimize images can impact how well your website performs – so if you found any of the above tips to be helpful, try to implement them and see how your site ranks afterwards.