Time: 1 minute per image
Directions:
Upload photos at the exact size they will appear on the web. For example, don’t upload a 3,000 pixel-wide image if your site displays it at 600 pixels wide. The recommended size is between 500 and 800 pixels wide because larger images negatively impact load time.
Compress the image so the file size doesn’t slow down the loading of your webpage. I use Save for Web in Photoshop and reduce the quality. The ideal image size is about 30KB, but up to 100KB is acceptable.
Save the image with a keyword-rich filename of three to seven words separated by hyphens. For example: fashionale-woman-red-plaid-jacket-050115.jpg. End the filename with a date stamp or other unique identifier, if needed.
Add “alt text” to the photo (not seen by users) so search engines can understand what is being shown. Simply “tell me about this image” in five to ten words. Here’s a good example: “Beautiful high school senior in modern red plaid.” Website platforms differ in how alt text is edited, so you should ask your website provider how to access it. WordPress users will see an alt text field when uploading or editing the image.
Add text near the image (caption) using searchable adjectives to convey emotion. For example, “I love the striking profile and color contrast in this photo of a high school senior.”
Optimized pages have text after every image.
Tagging the image with five to ten relevant keyword tags can be relevant for photo systems like Flickr, SmugMug or a stock photo site. Blogs don’t utilize keyword tags for SEO.
Repeat the method I outlined for as many as twenty images on the page. More than twenty images might hurt the user experience.
Next time you submit a headshot or other image to another site, send a link to embed instead of an attachment. If they reference photographyspark.com/images/zach-prez.jpeg instead of uploading a copy of my image, the image’s popularity will increase.
Avoid slideshows, photo plugins, and multiple images in the same photo (collages) because they don’t adequately leverage alternate text and captions.
Optimizing images from old blog posts likely won’t help your rank. Simply focus on proper image optimization moving forward.
