Image optimaztion necessary?

[seo25]

Image optimization is mandatory or optional? If yes,then what are the guidelines for image optimization?

[innominds]

Image optimization is not mandatory.
Keywords in alt text, good image file size etc are some of the tips to optimize an image.

[morestar]

Another few things you can do to help your image rankings is by naming your images clearly, with your keywords. Do not over do this, do not spam and if the image doesn't fit your keywords be careful.

What I usually do when I write an article or have images on my page is take the main parts of the title of the article/page and throw that into the image name, Title attribute and Alt attribute - especially if the page is related to your keywords and your image. I'm saying especially since because sometimes not everyone understands this.

[alan smith]

Image optimization is optional. But it is good if you do that.
Guidelines for image optimization.
1. Include the keyword in your image name : Use name in image like web design.jpg instead of number and alphabet.
2. Separate Search engine accessible image folder
3. Use the "Title" attributes : Title attributes are a great way to add meaningful information about the images. Use it. Ex:- Title="Website Design Los Angeles."
4. Do not use the same ALT tags for two or more images on the same page.Do not use the same TITLE attributes
5. Use Limited number of images per page
6. Reasonable image file size

[Rod Abbotson]

I agree with all the points above, remember that the title attribute is what will be displayed to the user and the alt attribute displayed when no picture is displayed. Not sure which is read on a screen reader for the visually impaired...maybe one of you can clarify that.

I used a programme called JPEG Advanced Compressor to reduce the size of my images...I have found this works well without loosing too much quality...also use 72 dpi res on all images

After using the compressor my page speed load up time became a third of what it was...

Rod

[bfxs]

What can be considered spamming in image optimization? Is it ok to have the title, alt text and description of an image to be all identical?

[mjtaylor]

You might find this tutorial very helpful: http://www.seoworkers.com/seo-articles-tutorials/alt-attribute.html.

[incredible]

Is it right that Google now considers page load time a ranking factor? If so even more reason to optimise your images!

[govindseo]

Is it right that Google now considers page load time a ranking factor? If so even more reason to optimise your images!
yes it is right Google and even another search engines too gives priority for those websites which takes less time to be loaded on browser that's why in webmaster tool shows your web page's loading time and shows notice too to reduce it.

[CoolDiamond]

It is not mandatory but it is desirable as through my experience I know that quite a bit of traffic comes from Google Images Search Engine

[Jayan]

Image Optimization is not compulsory but google won't read if you are not optimized Image tag. Just adding Alt attribute in image tag it will get optimized.

<Self promo removed>

[safdar_ali]

No doubt, Google consider the website loading time in Ranking... anyway these may be helpful:

a) Use reasonable image sized
b) Image names
c) Use proper keywords in Alt.

[Rod Abbotson]

Alt text should be a description of what the image is as this will be displayed when the image cannot be displayed or is loading...

title text is what you want to say about the image and text will appear when moused over.

use as designed for the best SEO

[Craig@Trinity]

At text is now more important with the enhanced Google image search. They have done alot of new things with the nature of the user experience and I think that as more people have blogs and use the web to communicate, image searchability will be important to any SEO strategy. The solution: long tail alt tags - UNIQUE

[jaycar]

Image optimization is mandatory or optional? If yes,then what are the guidelines for image optimization?
Off course its not mandatory but it does help if you do it properly. All the little things you can do to optimize your page, the better your ranking will be in the long run.

[benoonyango]

I need help here, my site has a lot of pictures and i wish i could get some advice on how to balance images on the website. Do i need to add tags for every picture?

[morestar]

Yes add keywords to every picture.

I'd just like to add something I just discovered.

I recently purchased an image to use in a blog post I'm about to publish. I went into the post (Wordpress publish) and went to media, etc. etc. to upload the image. Prior to doing this I had renamed the file in Explorer to another more search friendly name.

When the image loader screen open after reading the file, in the title attribute box, the original name of the image was displayed.

It looks like Wordpress can read meta data of an image and if Wordpress can, Google can too.

Just my observations...

[NickTyler81]

If the images are indexed by Google then you should be optimising them. It doesn't take too long and anything that can help?

Also users do use google image search it may not be worth alot of time but why not make some effort for yours to show first?

[Rod Abbotson]

I have had better SEO results with google image search since I added title attributes as well as alts to all my images...took me ages as have 450 plus pages on my site which is image intensive! For example <img src="xxx/xxx.jpg" alt="xxx" title="xxx" width="xxx" height="xxx" />

I also use advanced JPEG compressor program after photoshop to reduce image file size further without compromising quality...for the web I use 72dpi as well not more.

[alphaomega]

Yes add keywords to every picture.

I'd just like to add something I just discovered.

I recently purchased an image to use in a blog post I'm about to publish. I went into the post (Wordpress publish) and went to media, etc. etc. to upload the image. Prior to doing this I had renamed the file in Explorer to another more search friendly name.

When the image loader screen open after reading the file, in the title attribute box, the original name of the image was displayed.

It looks like Wordpress can read meta data of an image and if Wordpress can, Google can too.

Just my observations...
All search engines can read embedded information in any image. This is also a part of copy right protection of the original creators of the image. It can and will be traced no matter how you modify the image. Unless you can de-compile the image coding. As you all know, image is composed from 0 and 1. Basic computer language. It is therefore very simple task to embed additional code which is not visible as an image, but is visible if you have the right software.

[deepsand]

I agree with all the points above, remember that the title attribute is what will be displayed to the user and the alt attribute displayed when no picture is displayed. Not sure which is read on a screen reader for the visually impaired...maybe one of you can clarify that.
The contents of the alt attribute are what are displayed on text only browsers, and spoken by screen readers for the visually impaired.

Therefore, said attribute should:

Be an accurate description of the image; and,
Not used for keyword stuffing.

[deepsand]

Image Optimization is not compulsory but google won't read if you are not optimized Image tag. Just adding Alt attribute in image tag it will get optimized.
This is categorically false.

Google does not use the alt attribute for ranking purposes, as it is not intended for such purposes.

Here it is the title attribute that is of import.

[deepsand]

Not necessary but its only a good source where you can include your keyword ( content) . u should not miss a single chance from where you can get benefit
Only if it is a natural fit in the title attribute.

[deepsand]

With respect to the image itself, as opposed to the img element, the most important thing is to not use a file whose image dimensions, i.e height & width, are significantly greater than the dimensions being used for on-site display.

[Rod Abbotson]

I also added title attributes to every image as well as alt attributes...the title tags will be displayed when image is moused over, the alt tags will be displayed if the image is not displayed or read out on aural browsers.

[Rod Abbotson]

With respect to the image itself, as opposed to the img element, the most important thing is to not use a file whose image dimensions, i.e height & width, are significantly greater than the dimensions being used for on-site display.

Exactly...many make the mistake of just pasting images in to pages using WYSIWYG programs for creation...then it will display nicely on their own computer or South Korea but will take zillions of years to load elsewhere, file size is something many don't understand!!

I resize all my web images to the same pixel size as the display on the screen as in the image coding for width and heights, I then can also reduce them in size by using Advanced JPEG compressor with little loss of quality...this make my pages load quickly as my website is image heavy justy by the nature of what I am advertising. Many competitors web sites take ages to load...tough!

cheers
Rod

[LD]

I also added title attributes to every image as well as alt attributes...the title tags will be displayed when image is moused over, the alt tags will be displayed if the image is not displayed or read out on aural browsers.

I'm not sure what you mean by this Rod. When viewing a web page on the internet, I find that the Alt tag data appears adjacent to the cursor in the browser window when "mousing over" a specific image (if the alt tag data code is so installed), which is an expected event. And, that same Alt tag data is also displayed in the location where an image is missing in a web interface. In fact you can mouse over the missing image and see the Alt tag displayed twice, albeit, the mouse over "display" of the alt tag disappears in a couple of seconds.

[deepsand]

That behavior is browser dependent.

It is the Title attribute that is intended to be displayed on mouse-over; Alt is to be displayed when image fails to load or images are turned off.

Some browsers/versions do not follow convention, ignoring the Title attribute for some or all elements, and displaying Alt for some.

[LD]

Some browsers/versions do not follow convention, ignoring the Title attribute for some or all elements, and displaying Alt for some.

Right. At least FF and Chrome do not show the alt tag on mousing over. IE does. At least vers 8, that is.

[deepsand]

Right. At least FF and Chrome do not show the alt tag on mousing over. IE does. At least vers 8, that is.
Really? In native mode?

That's odd, as IE's been W3C compliant in this regard since IE5.

[LD]

It is a coding issue that is facilitating these results. Some older pages with an older configuration of the doc declaration show the alt tag on mouse-over.

[weegillis]

Not to blow my own horn, but way back when we ran this experiment. Perhaps it's time to update it?

post: ​alt and title attribute in img and a tags (http://www.webproworld.com/webmaster-forum/threads/83997-alt-and-title-attributes-in-IMG-and-A-tags?highlight=title+anchor+tags)

[deepsand]

Considering how much has changed in the world of browsers since then, perhaps so.

Did a quick search last night for a table of comparisons re. different browsers/versions handling of these attributes; best I found was from 2003!

[stylabrite]

Image optimization is the processing of compressing (or reducing the file size) of graphics (especially photographs) for display on web pages.

When you view a webpage on the internet, copies of all the graphics used to display the page are downloaded and stored temporarily on your computer. If the web page you are viewing contains a lot of photographs (eg, in photo galleries) the amount of time it will take to fully display the page will depend on the optimized file size of all the photos.

Photo files from digital cameras by default use a very high resolution (the "pixels") to ensure that the image is very sharp when it is printed. This means these files (usually jpg's) from digital camers are about 2-3 mb in size. These jpg's need to be optimized before they are displayed on a web-page, where the high resolution required by printing isn't an issue.

[weegillis]

While we cannot argue with the explanation you give, @stylabrite, I believe you miss the point of the OP question: optimizing images for search. This relates to how well documented the images are within the pages. Do they have captions? Do they have title attribute text? Do they have alternate text? Are they in a context that relates to the images (i.e., surrounded by text that describes what's in the photo)? These are all things that help optimize images for search engines.

[ryanlb]

While we cannot argue with the explanation you give, @stylabrite, I believe you miss the point of the OP question: optimizing images for search. This relates to how well documented the images are within the pages. Do they have captions? Do they have title attribute text? Do they have alternate text? Are they in a context that relates to the images (i.e., surrounded by text that describes what's in the photo)? These are all things that help optimize images for search engines.

Couldn't have said it better myself. There may be some other coding issues to consider, but from an optimization point of view, you want them SEs crawling your images and recognizing all the keywords that go with them, which necessitates the captions, alternate text, and other descriptive image fields.