Using Images On Your Website – SEO And Visual Benefits

It is an ancient Chinese emperor who is credited with first saying “A picture speaks a thousand words” (or, more accurately, a variation on this now common phrase). But this old saying stands the test of time and even in today’s modern world, it is very applicable, particularly when it comes to online content.

What are the advantages of using images on your website? Just take a look.

Layout And Design

People are, for the most part, visually oriented. How interested would you be in browsing through a website that was nothing more than pages of black text on a white background?

Actually, when the internet was in its infancy, many websites were nothing more than this type of content. If you needed information you found it without any frills, as a plainly packaged document. Besides, connection speeds back then couldn’t handle the task of downloading big files such as those required for high resolution graphics.

Obviously things have changed. Today we can select from flash animation, video clips, animated graphics, photos, and even interactive imaging. While you don’t need to incorporate all of them in your site, the more different types of online content you provide to visitors, the more appealing and interactive it becomes. And blog posts are always more popular when an image is inserted.

SEO Benefit

Although search engine crawlers can’t ‘see’ pictures, they can derive information about the content through meta tags. You are in control of what tags you use to help the search engine bot properly index the page. Consider that if your business is specific to a locale and you include a photo of the city’s most famous landmark on your site (with appropriate description), you are bound to get extra SEO benefit. Do be sure that the picture you use is complementary to the written content.

Using images on your website is now more important than ever due to the Google personalized search results. Pictures also help drive traffic when a user performs of search for images and your site is properly indexed so it is returned in the results.

Dynamic graphics that are constantly changing give your site maximum benefit as well as add to its aesthetic quality. This is an easy feature to add to a blog, particularly if you select a template that includes a slideshow feature.

SEO For Images Checklist

To get the most SEO benefit out of your images, incorporate all of these best practices:

• Rename the file name to your keyword(s).

• Use the tags to give the picture a description that includes your keywords.

• Add a title – this is what appears when a user mouses over the image and it is also what is returned for anyone using optical recognition software.

• Place all the pictures on your website in their own folder, typically called ‘images’ so that the direct URL of the picture becomes something like yourwebsite.com/images/picturefilename.jpg.

• Keep the size small enough to load quickly (less than 100 kb) even if a visitor is still using a dial-up internet connection.

Start using images on your website and let them do the talking – chances are they will say a thousand words or more.

See you at the top of Google!

Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
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