In this article, we will educate you on how you can optimize your WordPress galleries for SEO.
Having beautiful, high-quality images are a must for WordPress websites that specialize in photography, cooking, computer graphics, automobiles, and more. But in this day and age, it is pivotal for WordPress web developers and bloggers to optimize these images for SEO as well. Doing so will not only help you rank higher but having quality images can translate to possible conversions.
If you have a WordPress website with a high-quality image gallery, then this article will show you how to optimize it for search engines. After this, your website’s photos will eventually show up on SERPs.
Reduce Image File Size
Uploading an image might be an easy task, but without optimizing its size and dimensions, it could end up being a problem. The end result will give you a heavy photo that would take up plenty of server resources, which in turn will reduce your website’s speed and diminish your search engine ranking chances.
You can reduce the size of your images using either Photoshop or image optimization plugins.
Open up your image in Photoshop and press Alt + Ctrl + I to open the Image Size window. Then check the Constrain Proportions to keep height and width in proportion.
Then reduce the your image size by toggling the width to match your blog’s standards and the height will adjust automatically. Then go to File » Save for Web.
You will be redirected to a window where you can adjust the settings for file format, quality and more. You can check a preview version of your optimized image and then click the Save button if and when you’re satisfied. All that’s left is to upload the image on your WordPress blog or website.
I personally recommend choosing the latter with plugins such as Smush and EWWW Image Optimizer as these plugins can reduce image file sizes without even affecting their quality and they’re easier to use.
Rename Your Image File Names
If you’re using a professional camera to upload your images, then you would want to give them simplistic file names so that search engines can find them easily. Your image’s file name will look like this by default:
DSC_001.jpg.
This isn’t good because it doesn’t tell search engines anything about your images and what they’re about. Instead, what you should do, is rename them into something specific like;
IMG_FIFA_2017_01 or green-field-of-flowers.jpg.
Be sure to include relevant keywords into these file names to improve your SEO-ranking chances.
Create Image Sitemaps
Image sitemaps tell search engines about the information that the images on your website contain. Sitemaps make it easier for search engines to find images that contain javascript code like the ones with slider galleries and product images.
Normally, creating sitemaps is not very difficult, but for less technical WordPress users, I recommend plugins such as Google XML Sitemaps where sitemaps are created automatically.
Add Alt & Title Tags
Alt and title tags give search engines better information about which keywords your images should rank for. Go to the Insert Media screen from your WordPress admin and write your keywords into the Title and Alt Text fields. Be sure to do this with all of your images when you upload them into your website.
Also ensure to use keywords that are relevant and descriptive to help search engines better understand what your images are about.
Utilize Social Media
Integrating your images with social media can play a great role in your website’s SEO. The best way to do this is by adding social media share buttons on your website. You can also add “Pin It” buttons to enable customers to share your images on Pinterest.
You can use a tool such as an Image Sharer for visitors to share your website’s images with ease and then link back to you. This tool is also supported on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Conclusion
These are about the finest ways to optimize your WordPress image galleries for SEO. Once you have applied all of the above, your images can be easily found and your website will be able to rank better. If there are other tips that I fail to touch upon, please let me know in the comment section down below.
