Image Optimisation

There are two parts to optimising the images on your website.

  1. Reducing image file sizes
  2. Meta Data optimisation

Reducing Image Size

Why reduce the image file size?

Large image files will take longer to load in users' browsers and will therefore slow down the website's loading speed as a whole.

When looking at your sites image load times and general page speeds you should consider:

User Experience

When conducting studies, Google found that the longer a page takes to load, the probability of the user leaving increases. As such, you want to reduce your image file sizes to increase page loading speed, thus keeping users on your website. Would you wait around for images to load?

Google Rankings

In July 2018, Google released a new algorithm for ranking websites that considers page loading speed which we blogged about in August 2018. To summarise though, Google are punishing the slow and reward the fast!

Here's a guide for how you can optimise your images without losing any quality.

Why set an image's meta data?

Unlike humans, Google can't actually see the images on your website. Instead, they look at the written information surrounding your images, known as meta data.

Google looks at your images:

Advisory title: The name of your image, set in the 'Image Properties' which are accessible from the Editor or Classic editor when you right click on any image in your page.

Image file name: This is the name of the file from when it was on your computer. For Example: my-image.png

The image's caption: The caption is set on the web page and describes your image for users.

Alt tag on your website: The alt tag shows if the image can't be loaded (maybe due to bad internet connection). It's also what's read out for those who use screen-readers to use websites.

Make sure each of the above not only descibe your image, but also include your keywords/phrases to help your SEO.

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