15+ Tips To Optimize Images For Search Engines

by S.Pradeep Kumar on February 10, 2010





If you optimize a JPEG image, it can go from from 1.4MB to 10KB. By optimizing the images you can also reduce loading time of images substantially. Below I mentioned 15+ Tips To Optimize Images For Search Engines.

Optimizing Images1. WordPress Plugin : You can try SEO Friendly Images, a WordPress plugin, for optimizing images on your WordPress Blog. It will automatically optimize image ALT and TITLE tags.

2. Title and Alt : Alt attribute is very essential for optimizing Images for search engines. You have to describe the image in short.

3. Resize : Always resize the images using a software (like Photoshop) or any other online tools. Don’t use HTML or CSS properties to do it.

4. Robots.txt File : Your robots.txt should permit search engines to read the images folder. The images folder should not be blocked by your robots.txt file.

5. File Name : Always use relevant file name. If you have a ball picture, the file name should be “ball”. If it is a red color ball, then the file name should be “Red Ball”. Use hyphens (-) instead of underscores ( _ ). Simple enough right? :D

6. Use Captions : Place a small caption near to the image. Let it be at the top or bottom, right or left. Caption should be relevant to the image.

7. Be Relevant : The image should match the content and vice versa. Images can compel the visitors and readers to stay longer.

8. Enable Image Search : Make sure you have enabled Image Search on Google Webmaster Tools. If you have not, do it now!

9. Save For Web : Always use Adobe Photoshop to optimize your images. For better optimization try Save for the Web feature. Go to File | Save For The Web. By this you can optimize images to desired size and quality. You can also try Adobe Fireworks.

10. No Bitmaps : Avoid Bitmaps since it is not very good in Search Engine Image Optimization. Try other common and famous formats instead. See 13th Tip.

11. Useful Tools : You can use this online image optimizer from Dynamic Drive. You can check this list of useful tools for optimizing images.

12. Crop : Leave the essential parts of the images and crop the rest. It will also help you take up less space on your page. Usually, people will crop the white space around the images.

13. Right Format : These are the commonly used Image Formats.

JPEG – For Photos

GIF – For Animations

PNG – For Logos, Icons, Buttons and so on.

14. High Quality Images : It is believed that people pay more attention to clear images where they can see details. So always use High Quality Images. Avoid Blur and Abstract images. You can check the list of sites providing high quality images here.

15. Images Per Page : Try to avoid many images on a single page. Limited number of images per page is good for optimizing images for search engines.

16. Optimized Hosting : Popular image hosting site, Flickr is believed to help Yahoo! image optimization. So chose Popular and reliable photo sharing hosting, if you are not using WordPress! :P

17. New Location : Generally, the default location of Images is not good in terms of Image Optimization. You can change the default location of images on WordPress, by creating a new sub domain and shifting the Images Folder.

18. Original Images : Experts believe that it is good in terms of Image Optimization to use original images. You can brand the images through Watermarks or logos.

If you know any other good tip for optimizing Images for search engines, please share it in the comments!



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{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }

1 IndianCashMaker February 10, 2010 at 6:43 pm

i am not using images in my posts which is going against me….

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2 Saksham Talwar February 10, 2010 at 8:52 pm

Hey thanks for those great tips! Will surely implement them in my blog! Especially we never pay much attention to our images, but from now I will!

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3 Luc J February 11, 2010 at 3:09 am

Good tips. But would you really resize them in Photoshop if you want them to appear small on the page but enlarge them when the user clicks them?
If you leave them large, but resize them on the page only, they appear as large images in google search results.

Reply

4 Dentist Brighton February 11, 2010 at 8:12 am

I am beginner to learning Programming, we are going to optimize it with your tips.

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5 chandan February 11, 2010 at 10:06 am

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Thank you for this information. Well I did not take attention on image optimization for my blog.

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6 sudharsan @ technoskillonline February 11, 2010 at 5:24 pm

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Try to optimise images.. i too thought its a waste thing to optimise images…
But now im getting a some traffic from image search

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7 sudharsan @ technoskillonline February 11, 2010 at 5:21 pm

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No points is left..
u mentioned all…
Thanks for sharing man

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8 M.G.Ram kumar February 11, 2010 at 5:56 pm

good dude… keep on posting ….:)

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9 Rohit@White Color February 11, 2010 at 6:00 pm

I like the SEO tip for using the ALT attribute for images. I think it is by default present in the Wordpress Core package..

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10 Hami February 11, 2010 at 6:54 pm

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a very nice and awesome list of simply works to do.. but I think we should take more help from the plugins to make our blogging and posts at speed or in others words quality ones..

if we take so much effort mentioned in this post when we will be writing our posts ??

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11 S.Pradeep Kumar February 12, 2010 at 5:37 pm

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Hami, I don’t think we have to spend so much time on these things. You need to apply some of these tips once and they will last forever.. cheers!

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12 Hami February 13, 2010 at 5:52 pm

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you are right as well but there is a point where you have to focus more on other things

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13 hisoom February 11, 2010 at 8:14 pm

i used seo friendly image with success i have visitors from google images.

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14 Ravi Kant February 11, 2010 at 9:49 pm

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Your tips very accurate & easily understandable by Newbie also really good post .

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15 element321 February 11, 2010 at 10:55 pm

Great post. I try and follow all of these SEO practices. I tend to forget the alt tags when using editors or wordpress. I usually catch them during the testing and editing phase. If I didn’t catch it then. When I validate, it catches all the missing alt tags.

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16 Chethan February 12, 2010 at 3:35 pm

Cool Tips Brother..
But I always forget to Include “title” option…. i will fill “alt” anyways

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17 complete link building February 12, 2010 at 4:18 pm

Absolutely wonderful post. I feel like I should have paid a fee to be so well informed.

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18 Babaji M P February 12, 2010 at 5:27 pm

I used “enable image search” in webmaster tools few months ago, but now its gone ..

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19 Dennis Edell February 12, 2010 at 7:39 pm

Two things…

1. It’s always been my understanding that .gif is better then .jpeg all around when dealing with the web.

2. Images per page – home page too or just single post page?

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20 S.Pradeep Kumar February 12, 2010 at 8:42 pm

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Dennis, it is only in posts and not in homepage.. ;)

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21 Dennis Edell February 13, 2010 at 6:12 pm

Thanks man. :)

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22 Vivek February 12, 2010 at 10:06 pm

when i started blogging i haven’t use any image in my posts but when i started using images got some traffic from google images, after it i realized that how important it is to use images in posts. the tips mentioned by you is good and most of them i am already using

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23 Hami February 13, 2010 at 5:55 pm

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Traffic from Images will always surprise you :)

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24 Anish K.S February 15, 2010 at 7:42 am

Right Tips, use keywords as Alt, for me Images are so important, i am getting a decent traffic from images.google

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25 Mathew Day February 15, 2010 at 11:48 am

Sweet list, that is one of my weaknesses is optimizing my images. Partly cause I don’t really spend much time with them and because I didn’t really know much about optimizing them.

I think you gave me plenty to work with now because I’ve been noticing lately my images have been getting less and less searches for them when I look at my stats.

Thanks, MD

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26 Harsh Agrawal February 16, 2010 at 3:30 pm

SOme nice and useful tip. Also add those images into Flickr and at the bottom give credit to your blog. This will help you to drive extra traffic :)

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27 3DFabrique February 18, 2010 at 10:51 pm

I receive a few hits everyday from Google images but I believe the traffic is low quaity. I know every visit is a visit after all but still….should I focus on increasing traffic from google images or not?

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28 Ramkumar February 19, 2010 at 1:18 pm

Writing apt alt and title are really vital, they can help in driving huge traffic through image search .

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29 Dennis February 24, 2010 at 1:13 am

I love the “SEO friendly Images” plugin. That was something I had to do manually every time, and sometimes it can get pretty frustrating. That one will save so much time.

Thanks!
Dennis’s last blog…Login With Multiple Accounts On Same Website Simultaneously

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30 Gabby February 24, 2010 at 9:31 am

I also tend to forget the alt tags when using editors or wordpress. I usually catch them during the testing and editing phase. If I didn’t catch it then. When I validate, it catches all the missing alt tags.
Gabby’s last blog…Will Floyd Mayweather vs Shane Mosley Silence the Critics?

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31 Paul @ Spice Up Your Blog February 24, 2010 at 12:45 pm

Some interesting tips,

I tend to work hard on having relevant and eyecatching images but apart from alt tags i never think of images in seo.

Paul.

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32 kristine February 24, 2010 at 5:56 pm

In optimizing the images we can also reduce loading time of images substantially.Now i know the 15 tips to optimized Images in the search engines. Thanks for the tips that you have shared to us more power to your site! God bless ;-)
kristine’s last blog…Free Laptops With Mobile Phones

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33 Kothapally Arun February 26, 2010 at 12:12 am

That’s a complete set of information. Liked what you said about resizing of image.

keep it up.
Kothapally Arun’s last blog…This is my Broken Bone Tattoo from Casttoos!!!

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34 Udegbunam Chukwudi February 26, 2010 at 2:01 am

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When you say The images folder should not be blocked by your robots.txt file, which folder are you referring to? Cos I disallowed indexing of all my wordpress folders (admin, content and includes)
Udegbunam Chukwudi’s last blog…Beware Of MMO Blog Setup Services Like This One!

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35 S.Pradeep Kumar February 26, 2010 at 6:52 am

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Udegbunam, I mentioned the folder in which you are storing your images! :)

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36 Katrina March 1, 2010 at 11:20 am

Very informative article.. I would like to add that Irfanview is a free program for image manipulations..
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37 GDI Blog March 12, 2010 at 7:03 pm

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I use to redirect peoples coming from the google image search directly to the page where the image is by removing the google image frame. Does this effect SEO ?
GDI Blog’s last blog…List of blogs that accept Guest Posts

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38 S.Pradeep Kumar March 12, 2010 at 7:58 pm

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I don’t think so. It won’t be an issue mate! ;)

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