Guide on Image Optimization For Local SEO!
"For a local business to rank high on search engines, a lot more will be needed than an aesthetically pleasing website. Most businesses will use images in creating compelling visuals but will forget to do proper optimization for search engines. Taking a few minutes to optimize the images could result in significant improvements in search engine rankings. Before anything else, the right image will need to be selected."
"You could rank the images on the first page because of technical mastery but the efforts will be in vain if the images are not high-quality. Here are tips that will come in handy if you’re looking to optimize the images on your website for local SEO."
One of the most important considerations with image optimization is the file size. An image that is too heavy will result in longer lead times. Users don’t have the patience to wait for more than 5 seconds for a page to load. Google wants to provide the best experience to users and a page that takes ages to load will obviously be a bad signal. In order to prepare the images to be uploaded to your website, you’ll need to be mindful of the creation process. You don’t want to make the mistake of having the image viewed in a format that wasn’t originally intended because of the conversion.
The image needs to be of the best quality possible while at the same time ensuring that it has been optimized. This can be made possible by compressing the image. There are plenty of tools that can be used to optimize images without losing the original quality.
Just as with any file, you’ll also want to be as descriptive with the image as possible. This provides a first glance to search engines to learn what your image is all about. Search engines can pick up location information and the kind of service that you provide. The words on the title should be separated by a hyphen.
Even though search engines algorithms have improved over the years, they’re not as smart when it comes to knowing what an image is all about. Using ALT text can help search engines to learn more about the image. If you’re a local business, you’d want to get attention for the local products or services that you provide. A recommended hack would be to include a local modifier in addition to the keyword so as to improve the relevance of the images on search engines. Just as with any keyword optimization endeavor, you shouldn’t overdo it. Search engines can easily identify keyword stuffing and this could also affect your overall ranking.
Search engines can also associate the relationship of text that surrounds an image, especially if it is the HTML version of a page. The text should contain the relevant keyword to help search engines identify the images.
Anchor texts can be described as the links that are directly pointing to an image. Directing links to an image can help with better search engine ranking. The anchor texts should contain the relevant keyword and variations so that it looks more natural in the eyes of search engines. There is also the risk of over-optimization with anchors. If it’s a new campaign, you’ll want to keep the anchors as natural as possible. They can still be descriptive as that is what search engines like Google is focused on.
Search engines will still crawl your website even without providing the necessary infrastructure to do so. A sitemap is like a guide for search engines on the areas to crawl in your website. You can allocate a crawl budget to images if you’d like to see an improvement with the indexation and ranking. A sitemap can also guide visitors on where to go and the areas to access your website. This is particularly true for a big website with thousands of web pages and images.
The most accurate way of tagging an image is by adding longitude and latitude metrics which is also known as geotagging. There are other details that can also be included in the geotag that provides information about the photo. Our SEO tool can help with bulk geotagging. Most geotag tools will use metadata to fill out the information. Our geotag tool makes it possible to add NAP (name, address, and phone) which can easily be embedded on your website. Geotagging is one of the most effective ways you can boost ranking for your local business.
Wikipedia is always keen when it comes to adding commercial links to its platform. There are exceptions and they don’t mind if images are included for public use. Your town or municipality Wikipedia page could be in need of an image. When the picture is being uploaded, make sure to put it in the section of creative commons that require attribution. The link is not only from a high authority website but is also contextually relevant. Make sure to be familiar with the rules of posting and editing as it is easy for content to get deleted.
The same concept will apply to search engine protocol. It will help in telling Facebook what your business website is all about and how it will be displayed on the platform. The protocol can help in determining the best images that can be used as thumbnails when sharing content on Facebook. Google is known to use Open Graph in trying to understand pages that have video content. Implementing Open Graph is straightforward since it will be using the Title tags of a page.
Customers will want to see all the products that you provide and there is no better way to do so than with high-quality images. It’s also common to include map links to a business website. Make sure to add ALT texts to tell search engines what the images are all about.