Every web design company knows how important it is to have a relevant picture properly optimized on the website. The biggest issue is that most people don’t know how to set this up. They don’t understand the importance of what a great, relevant image can do for their site. We want you to understand what most people don’t so you can get that one important step ahead of your competition. This can work for anyone, anywhere in the United States. You can implement this immediately to get that edge! We will give you tops on:

Choosing your image

Setting up your image

SEO related background setup

Don’t neglect important images

Important images should be a key strategy in your overall advertising. Giving the images you use on social media is important. Even more important is ensuring important images on your site are optimized. We recommend that you give a lot of thought to the images you use. The placement of the images are key as well. Don’t just throw an image on your page or on social media just to have an image. Be sure the image is eye-catching and will drive traffic to what you are trying to achieve.

Preparing a relevant picture for use in your article

Using pictures in your article is good, but it’s better if your picture is a relevant picture. The picture should be one that enhances the article. Many people can start to feel overwhelmed if your article is text heavy. They need a visual that will support the text to really help them understand the main point of the article. We recommend using a clear image that supports the article. Whether it’s solely an image or an infographic that has supporting text, it still adds support and clarity.

Using the proper name, correct format, and optimal scaling

The aesthetics of your photo is important as well as the background aspects. Be sure that the name on your photo is relevant and supports the article. There are several different types of picture file formats. It’s important for you to understand what the different formats are and the best one for you to use. The third aspect is to make sure that the photo is scaled to best fit the article. You want to make sure that it fits the article and doesn’t alter the words to where it’s difficult to read.

Use responsive images

Having a photo that looks good across any platform and any screen size is important. Because browsing and reading are done on mobile devices, your images need to adjust. You need to make sure that the image is responsive to screen size. You’ve probably experienced a static image that looks great on a desktop but is difficult to read on your mobile device. As we all know this makes it difficult for the person doing research to navigate. Responsive images have all but become a necessity nowadays.

Find the right quality to size ratio

Finding the right quality to size ratio is almost like an art. Think of the balancing scale picture. On one side you need to make sure that the image is clear. On the other side you need to make sure that the image isn’t too big or too small. In order to get the scale to balance your image needs to be a great balance. A large image can affect upload speed while too small will come across as grainy. We recommend that you do your research as to what the ideal sizes for images are for your platform.

Adding an image to an article

As we mentioned before, images help support the text in the article. It can support the content through the image or infographic. In all reality, images help break up the body content for those who are visual learners. For those of you who are asking how many images should be placed in an article, while adding images it’s recommended one image per 150 words. We suggest that you follow that as a guideline and add in as many as you feel comfortable. Be sure to not overdo it though!

Captions

Adding captions to an image when uploading to an article often gets overlook. This is something that provides an increase in SEO content. By adding captions to a photo, you tell search engines what the image is. It shows that you have even more relevant content outside of the verbiage. It enhances your SEO ranking and provides another avenue of getting relevant information out there. This is a way to further establish your article as authentic and relevant. It helps solidify the expertise of the article as well.

Alt text and title text

On google SEO, there are several ways to get on the first page – and one of those ways is through images. Google won’t know what the image says without the alt text or title text. You can also turn on alt text on hover. How do you know what to put? Here are some image alt text best practices:

1 – be specific and descriptive

2 – context relates to the topic

3 – less than 125 characters

4 – use keywords, but not too frequently, and not in all photos

Image structured data

Every digitized image on your article or page needs to have structured data. Basically this organizes the image within their placement on the page. It’s basically a way to show where it’s at on the page as well as the image to the content of the page. This ensures that the images have significance to the article and add value to the reader. As long as the image that you choose initially fits with the article, you should be fine.

Add Open Graph and Twitter Card tags for an image

Open Graph and Twitter Card tags are basically code that communicates to social media what the content of the page is. If this is something you have never heard of, it’s something you’ve definitely experienced. When you share a site or an article on social media, you see an image preview of that article. If there are proper tags in place, the image can be relevant and eye-catching. If not, the preview can look messy and discombobulated. Setting up proper Open Graph and Twitter Card tags help your site look good when shared on social media.

Use lazy loading

One strategy that many companies use is that where images and other content doesn’t load until it’s needed. This means that instead of having everything loaded on the page at once, it loads as the user scrolls. This can minimize load time when the user gets on the page and can increase the speed of the website and its reaction. This is especially useful if you have large amounts of data and a multitude of images on your page. Because the images are not loaded all at once, your website speed increases significantly.

Conclusion

There are several ways to use your images to increase your SEO and shareability on social media. Many of the tips shared are universal, meaning it can work across many industries and it works all across the US. The key things to remember are to make sure that you have a relevant photo that is not too big or too small and has good quality. Be sure your image is responsive to accommodate the many devices used to visit your site and add captions as well as alt text to your images. Yes, it sounds like a lot, but it will be worth it when it’s all said and gone and the page is prepared!

DESCRIPTION

You probably don’t know how important images are to your site structure. We give you all the details to help you use important images that are relevant to your page and add value.

Bio:

Tim Absalikov is the Acting CEO of Lasting Trend. Tim is an expert in technical optimization. He has a deep understanding of SEO, SEM, UX and UI considerations, shopping campaigns, PLA, RLSA, dynamic retargeting, works with E-Commerce and Web Analytics.