A Beginner's Guide to SEO for WordPress Websites - Optimizing Images for Search Engines

Optimize images for SEO and speed

Page load speed plays an important role in SEO and user experience. Search engines rank faster sites higher. The same is true for image search.

Images increase the loading time of the entire page. Images take longer to download than text, meaning that if you have to download multiple large image files, the page will load more slowly.

This is why you need to optimize the image pins on your WordPress website. It's still a bit of a challenge because many newbies aren't very good at this aspect of images.

The easiest way to optimize your images is to edit them on your computer using photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop. This allows you to create smaller file sizes by choosing the correct file format.

It is also possible to use the WordPress image compression plugin.Image Optimization PluginIt is possible to automatically reduce the file size when uploading images to WordPress.

In addition, you can also convert all the images on your website into WEBP format, see our article on this topic.WordPress Accelerated Website Image to webp format.

What is Alt Text?

Alt text or alternative text is an HTML attribute added to the tag.img, which is used to display images on web pages. It is shown below in plain HTML code:

It allows webmasters to describe images in plain text. The main purpose of alternative text is to improve accessibility by allowing screen readers to read alternative text for visually impaired users.

Alt text is also crucial for image SEO. It helps search engines understand the context of the image.

Modern search engines can use AI to recognize images and their content. However, they still rely on webmasters to describe images in their own words.

Alt text also accompanies images in Google image searches, which facilitates the user's understanding of the image and improves the chances of attracting more users to a website article.

Often, alternative text is not visible on the site.

However, if the image is damaged or cannot be found, then the user will be able to see alternative text with the damaged image icon next to it.

What is the difference between alternative text and headings?

Alt text is used for accessibility and image SEO, while the title field is used internally by WordPress for media search.

WordPress inserts the alt tag into the actual code used to display the image. title tags are stored in the WordPress database and are used to find and display images.

In the past, WordPress also inserted title tags into the HTML code. However, this was not ideal from an accessibility standpoint, so they removed it.

What is the difference between alternative text and headings?

Alternative text is used to describe the image to search engines and screen readers. On the other hand, captions are used to describe images to all users.

Alternative text is not visible on the site, but the caption is visible below the image.

Alternative text is vital for better image SEO on your website. Captions are optional and can be used when additional information about the image needs to be provided to website users.

How to Add Alternative Text, Captions and Descriptions to Images in WordPress

Alternative text, title and description text make up the image metadata that can be added to an image when uploading it to WordPress.

When adding an image with the default image block, WordPress allows to add captions and alternative text to it.

WordPress automatically generates captions for images based on the file name.

This can be done by expanding the image's "high level"Block Settings to change the title. Here, one will find a "Title Attributes" field, where you can add your own custom captions to the image.

It is also possible to edit the alt tags and titles of images that have been uploaded to WordPress.

(after a verb of motion indicates movement away from the speaker)Media "librarypage and locate the image you want to edit.

Simply click on the image to bring up the Attachment Details pop-up window.

Here, alternative text, titles, descriptions, and optional descriptions shown on the Attachments page can be entered.

Attention:Changing the alt tag or title of an image through the media library will not change it in posts and pages that already use the image.

When to use image captions in WordPress

Captions provide additional details about the image to all users. All users (including search engines and screen readers) can see the caption on the screen.

Some of you may have noticed that most websites don't usually use captions with images in their blog posts or pages. This is because captions are usually not needed to explain the image.

Subtitles are more suitable for the following scenes:

• Family or event photos
• Photos that require additional backstory explanation
• Product Photo Gallery

Other tips to improve image search engine optimization

Adding alt tags is not the only way to improve the SEO of your images. Here are some other tips to keep in mind when adding images to your blog posts.

1. Writing descriptive alternatives

Many newbies usually use only one or two words as alternative text for images. This can make the image too generalized and difficult to rank.

2. Use of descriptive file names for images

There is no need to save the image becauseDSC00434.jpegThey need to be named correctly. Consider the keywords the user enters in a search to find a specific image.

Image file names should be more specific and descriptive. For example.red-wooden-house.jpegbetter thanhouse.jpegThe

3. Providing contextual information for pictures

Search engines are getting smarter every day. They can recognize and classify images very well. But they need to provide contextual information about the image.

Images need to be relevant to the overall theme of the post or page. It is also helpful to place the image near the most relevant text in the post.

4. Follow SEO best practices

You also need to follow the overall SEO guidelines for your website. This will improve overall search rankings, including image searches.

5. Use of original photographs and images

There are many free stock photo sites that you can use to find free images for blog posts. However, the problem with stock photos is that they are used by thousands of websites.

Use more original images or create exclusive, high-quality images.

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