You might have known and heard a lot about search engine optimized content. As a matter of fact, the keywords that you choose for your content help your content to be ranked better based on how good the keyword is. What’s more to it is that even Google images can be ranked better and be more searchable with the help of search engine optimization.

The optimization of Google images shouldn’t and can’t be underestimated since Google images make second most used search platform on Google’s website. The number of searches on Google images is more than that on YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Google Maps all added together.

Usefulness of an image

If your question is-what kind of images get better rankings, it is quite simple. Google bases its rankings on feedback, and usefulness of an image. The more useful to people, relevant, and purposeful the image is, the better ranked it becomes. To be precise, the more the number of clicks an image gets, the better ranked it is. So, as a priority, you have to aim at providing the best of image-catering to the user’s needs and giving the user a great experience.

Quality of the image

In order to attract more people to click a picture, you have to make sure your image has a certain amount of appeal and is of great quality. While it might not seem really evident, users themselves make it clear that the quality of image makes a huge difference. People make judgments about the product you are trying to showcase or advertise based on the quality of the image of it that has been uploaded.

Since an image that is of a very large size might make the page take more time to load, you have to make sure the image is not of a large size. This doesn’t mean you have to compromise with the quality of your image. There are a number of software and apps that let you keep what is needed in an image and take unnecessary data out of it. Some of the tools that you can rely on for the task are- JPEGMini, PunyPNG, and Kraken.io etc.

You also have to be aware of how the image you are going to upload looks when uploaded and is visible in the search results. When an image is not of the standard image ratios, they are resized to make them fit the dimensions of 16:9 and 4:3 (standard image ratios)

When you upload a group picture or an image with a lot of details, the details become tiny when the image shows in the search result. This is a turn off for the user since nothing is really visible. Users tend to click pictures that reveal something that holds significance for the user. Also, when you decide to use an image that has already been used by hundreds of other websites, you can’t expect that picture to be ranked better for obvious reasons.

Image name and description

People search images with their names. So, to make it searchable, make sure the image name and description is apt. A lot of people upload an image without even changing its name. It is quite obvious no one would enter the raw name in the search engine since these auto-generated names make no sense and are very random. For instance, the raw name of an image can be img_4567 which doesn’t make any sense as such. So, it is very important for you to change the image name to what precisely it is about.

Schema mark-up

Since there are millions and zillions of images over websites fighting to get a better ranking, the standards of SEO rise day by day. To get a better ranking, you have to be more precise about the information you give people about a picture. The additional info that you are providing comes under schema mark-up. When you provide details, like the date when the picture was taken, location of the picture, photographer, and additional text for description, you are allowing the search engine receive a lot more details about your image.

Above everything, you need to carefully weigh the possibilities of being benefitted from image optimization. Imagine what if your website doesn’t really need or depend on images. This would mean all your efforts go in vain. Image optimization isn’t a quick thing. You need to invest time and efforts in it. This is why making sure you are directing your efforts in the right direction by trying to optimize your image is of great importance. Only after you have made sure, you go about taking steps to optimize the image.