As a web developer I want to build each website to be as stable as possible so as it looks the same across all browsers while remaining accessible and validating to W3C requirements. There are a lot of hoops to jump through and with a large build some of the finer details can slip through the net if you’re not careful. Images are used extensively on many websites with some contributing to design and some contributing to content. When it comes to optimising images for SEO purposes it’s the images in the content you need to concentrate on. Google image search has the potential to bring in a fair amount of traffic to your website, and as such optimising your images can have a positive affect on your visitor numbers. In this article we will explore some best practices for SEO image optimisation.
File Type
File type can be a subjective matter. Site speed has become one of the many ranking factors in the Google algorithm. As such, the larger file types should be avoided. Gifs will offer you a small file size but at reduced quality. They are perfect for background images, gradients, shadows, etc. However, for larger images such as logos and images that accompany the main content they are not ideal, in these cases a jpeg is the better option. If your designer is a little fussy then he or she may want images to be in PNG format to support vector images. Compromise is the key in this instance.
Image Size
Once again, with site speed being one of the many ranking factors, image size can play a huge part in reducing your websites load times. Avoid using unnecessarily large pictures and use the appropriate file type for the images. Using the ‘Save For Web’ feature in Photoshop can also help toward reducing file size. From a user experience perspective, unnecessarily large images may contribute to a bad user experience. If a larger image is needed, consider linking from a smaller image or employing a JavaScript / jQuery light box plugin.
Image Location
Avoid placing images in the root folder of your site. It’s always appropriate to have a folder called ‘images’ in the root of your website and to locate all of your images there. You may also find it useful to have category folders within the image folder for organisational means. Avoid saving your images to an eternal location, this will increase the load time for your site.
Image Naming
It is good practice to name your images appropriately. You can use your targeted keywords to name images to give an accurate reference to what’s in the image. Avoid using generic names such as ‘photo1.jpg’ or a non-relevant structure ‘catpic22356.jpg’. As an example, if you are naming a photo of a car, a naming structure of ‘manufacturer-type’ is appropriate. E.g. ‘volvo-saloon.jpg’
Alt Tags
The alt attribute is a key element to accessibility and is there to give end users who have images turned off or who use screen readers an accurate description of what that images depicts. As such the alt attribute should be used correctly. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t include a couple of keywords to the description.
Content Placement
Once you have your image in place on your page, placing relevant text before and after the images is essential. This can be a perfect opportunity to target long tail key phrases, the traffic obtained from long tail phrases will be much lower than a glamour term but you will find that the conversion rate from long tail traffic will be much higher.
Robots.txt
Finally, insure that your robots.txt file it not excluding access to your image folders.
Guest post by: Alex is a dolphin trainer and swimming pool owner who loves swimming pools and replacing swimming pool filters. You can find him on Twitter here @harvey1dash8.
Unless you are lucky enough to have thousands of links pointing your site, you will have to do everything possible to make sure that you are making the most of the link juice that is flowing towards you. The Internet is full of resources about how to optimise your site, so I thought I would talk about some of the overlooked methods and tactics that can help squeeze the most out of your link juice.
Canonical
I love this term, but I think it can confuse many of us when we come across it for the first time. The canonical tag deals with duplicated content and pages, when you are using a canonical tag you are telling Google that whatever page the tag points to is the most important version of that page and it should be ranked as such. The canonical tag can be used almost anywhere and this is because if Google sees any difference in a URL it will see that page as being different, even if they have exactly the same content Google will still see these pages as being different and as such may choose to rank one over the other. Using a canonical tag can help to make sure that Google is ranking the pages you want it to.
www to non www
Like I suggested already if Google sees any variation in the URL it will count these as 2 different pages, this goes for the www version of your site and the non www version of your site, as Google sees these as 2 different pages your page rank can then be split between the 2 versions. Adding a canonical tag here can help but the best thing to do is instigate a permanent redirect from one to the other, you may lose some page rank but it is better than having your juice split between 2 versions of the site. Also be careful of trailing slashes (/) as again these will be considered as a different pages.
Nofollow and java links
This is where things move into the grey area of onsite SEO, If you are using Nofollowed and java script links you are trying to funnel link juice from one section of your site to another. So you have 2 options, adding nofollow will mean Google will see the links but won’t pass any juice through them. ( there is an on-going debate about whether or not Google will still follow these links). Using a java script link will mean the spider won’t see these links at all. There will be sections of every site that you won’t want to leak any page rank to, sections like your terms and conditions and your privacy policy. But I think it is also important to show Google that these pages exist so in these circumstances I would use a no follow tag. Java script is usually more useful if you are trying to conserve as much juice on one page as possible while still offering your visitors a user friendly site that they can easily navigate through.
Silo
Silioning a site is a tough concept to try and get across especially in a paragraph or 2, if you want find out more check this post out ( be warned you could read this post 5 times before it will make sense). The shortened version is, you build your site around themes and you categorise each page or post under a specific theme. Your goal is to send a clear message to Google about what each section of your site is about, cross links between themes may confuse Google and blur the message you are trying to get across about the different these of your site. You want to keep your site as regimented and structured as possible if you are randomly linking between categories you won’t be able to do that. If you want to link from a post in one theme to a post in another them, if possible link to the main theme page of the other post.
I guess you are probably asking, what about Meta tags, and Url structure. Well a quick search will provide you with all the answers you need to these topics, hopefully the ideas I have mentioned are not covered quite as much as some of the more common methods. Using these tactics won’t give you instant success but if you can add them to your current strategy they may help just a little.
This is a Guest post by Neil Jones, who Specializes in launching ecommerce sites, he is currently plying his trade as head of marketing for eMobileScan. With 18 websites based all around Europe they are on course to be one of Europe’s largest online retailers of Industrial handheld computers like the Datalogic Memor and the Symbol MC70. Neil has been an online marketer for the past 6 years and in that time he has owned and run a range of sites all built around the ecommerce platform.
