How to Optimize Visual Content for Search Engines

We all know optimizing your website is crucial to improving your rankings on Google. Therefore, many people greatly prioritize optimizing product titles, blog content, URL, and overall website.

However, they often forget to improve the SEO of their pictures on the website, which offers brand visibility and recognition. Besides that, the image content shows Google that this is a credible and trustworthy online store.

So, only taking attractive food and beverage photos will not do a thing if you don’t optimize them. Optimized images will bring potential customers to your site, encouraging them to make your desired purchase decisions. Read further to learn tips on how to attain search engine attention.

How to Help Google Find Your Product Photos

Customize Image File Names to Appear on Google Image Search

When it comes to optimizing a photo, keyword-rich names are absolutely important. Image name alerts search engines like Google crawlers about the image's message. If possible, change the image file name of your existing image to bring customers to your site.

For example, you sell delicious drinks. The high chances are that you have saved their images with beverage 1, beverage 2, or so on. It’s better to name the picture “strawberry juice” to let Google understand the image. So, when someone searches for strawberry juices, your product appears on Google image search results.

Create SEO-Friendly Alt Tags for Google Images

Alt tags are text alternatives to a picture when a browser can’t render them. Like the title, image alt text describes the content of the product image. Make sure to write the relevant text that fits with the image.

Writing alt tags is also crucial to the overall on-page SEO strategy. You need to ensure a high-quality image, but if the image fails to load, users will see what the picture is supposed to be. You can incorporate keywords to help rank higher on Google search.

Write the Metadata of the Image

Metadata is basically written for your website's landing pages, product pages, blogs, and image pages. It helps to describe the information of your image to Google. The metadata should not be more than 150 to 160 characters, need to have primary keywords, and should explain the idea of content on the webpage.

Consider Image Size

Long page load times can reduce your ranking from search engines, and the size of image files plays a key role in improving speed. Furthermore, long page load times can lead to lost sales, as customers can’t wait long to check your product images.

Keep the file size as small as possible, preferably not more than 70KB. You can offer an option for viewing on a separate page or to zoom in and out to get a larger image.

Choose the Right Format to Rank High on Image Search Results

Before you start uploading images to your site, you need to choose the best file type. Though many image formats exist, the most used ones are JPG or JPEG, WebP, and PNG.

PNG offers excellent image quality but has a larger size. JPG has a relatively smaller size but may lose image quality. On the other hand, WebP is the only image format supported by both Firefox and Chrome but offers lossy image compression.

Make Your Image Mobile Friendly

Mobile SEO can give you better user engagement and more ranking power. You need to ensure that your product images look engaging and attractive when your audience visits your sites with mobile devices. You also need to choose the right image size to grab users' attention. Furthermore, choose high-quality images that don’t get pixelated if the mobile user tries to zoom in.

Bottom Line

So, now you know how to make your pictures appear on more specific results on Google. With these techniques, you can enjoy higher traffic to your websites. While optimized pictures are important, make sure that your photos are eye-pleasing. This is because even if the customers come to your site, they will avoid purchasing delicious food or beverages if they don’t look attractive.

Make sure the product features are visible through the display picture. Don’t upload similar images and provide variety to customers. Keep in mind that image subject matter, so ensure that your image is relevant to the text content on the page.

Besides that image, optimize the image's content as you already do. Write page headings, descriptive titles, and keywords that your potential customers might be searching on Google that will be helpful to bring them to your site.