Image optimization plays an important role in SEO. Image optimization creates many advantages of image assets including faster load time, smooth user experience and additional ranking opportunities.
Although image search technology has made great strides, search engines are unable to identify the content of an image. They depend very much on text associated with the image. Here are some tips for image optimization.
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Stock Images Won’t Help SEO
There are many sites which provide stock images. The problem with filling your site with stock images is that your site looks pretty much unoriginal. If you think about a corporate website, a consulting firm or customer support firm you will notice that most use the same image of a smiling man. While stock images may be optimized it won’t have the same effect as an original image.
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Using Original High Quality Images
The more the original pictures you have on your website better is the user experience. Original images produced by your company mates or taken by in-house camera work better than any kind of stock photo.  Another thing is to produce high quality images. Better quality images can attract more people to your website.
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Images Can Act As A Catalyst
Images should be used to better explain the posts. A significant size of the population learns visually. Images can have an emotional impact than large blocks of text. Using screenshots is another way to make the post more meaningful. Screenshots are a wonderful way to get the point across.
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Do not use copyright images
You need to make sure that there is no copyright conflict. If you do not have a license to use then it’s better not to use it. For example, do not use Shutterstock images without license. Under DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act) you could be issued a DMCA takedown notice. There are plenty of ways to find copyright free images.
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Best Practices for JPEG, PNG, GIF Images
JPEG image provides the best option for maintaining a quality image when it is resized or compressed. Therefore, even though there is compression JPEG will form a high quality image.
If you are designing a logo use a PNG Image and try to avoid GIF images for images and photographs.
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Use Compressed Images Without Losing Quality
The file sized used in an image should be optimal. A larger file size will significantly increase loading time. The image can be compressed in photoshop or you can use bulk compression through an WordPress plugin.
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Naming Image Files For SEO
For great SEO descriptive keywords rich file names are crucial. Image file name alert the crawlers as to the subject matter of the image. For example, if you take an image using your camera the name looks like IMG_776536 or something like this, change it to an appropriate name so that search engine understand your image . The SEO value of the image is increased.
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Write SEO Friendly Alt Text
Alt Text are text alternative to images when browser cannot render them properly. It has been found that Alt-Text is beneficial for the overall SEO strategy. This is because Alt Text provides Google with useful information.
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Add Descriptive Captions For Image
Another image optimization best practice is to add descriptive captions. Captions are helpful because not all image can be understood right way. Further it provides additional context to the image which is considered beneficial for SEO.
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Creating An Image SiteMap