Image Optimization
When used correctly, images can make a web page much richer and much more eye-catching. At the same time, properly optimized images help to increase the traffic of the relevant web page by ranking higher in search engine queries. However, unoptimized images can also be a problem for web pages. Especially unoptimized and large images will increase the loading time of the relevant web page and cause many users to leave the page without viewing it. Let's examine the points to be considered in image optimization together below.
First, let's examine the general recommendations that apply to each image.
Step 1: Use Correct and Relevant Visuals
Images are very important elements for the web page they are on. However, making a careless choice to use only images can be harmful for the relevant web page. Therefore, images that are as relevant to the page content as possible, that will attract the attention of the users and that will convey something to the users should be used. Images that are selected by paying attention to these details can help users spend more time on the relevant web page and have a good experience.
Step 2: Original and Quality Images
It is very important to present original and high-quality images employment database to users who visit the web page. High-quality and original content will positively affect both the performance of the relevant image on search engine results pages and the user experience. Because the image on a web page can even affect the user's thoughts about the relevant brand or institution. High-quality and original images will help attract users' attention, create a good impression on the user's side of the relevant website, and perhaps help the relevant website to take a place in the user's memory. For this reason, the images to be displayed on web pages should be carefully selected and presented to visitors in a high-quality manner. If you cannot find original images related to the subject, you can make the images you find more original with filters and minor edits.
Step 3: Copyright of Images
As in many other subjects, the issue of copyright is also very important in images. Images taken from a competitor or any other website to be displayed without paying attention to copyright may cause legal problems for the relevant webmasters. For this reason, webmasters who do not want to encounter copyright problems should design their own images, use images that they are sure are not copyrighted, or use images obtained from platforms called stock images on their web pages.
After general suggestions, we can now move on to more technical and SEO-focused suggestions.
Step 4: Select File Format
There are many file formats depending on the type of image and its purpose of use. The most well-known image file formats are JPEG and PNG. JPEG is generally used for large images, PNG for images with transparent backgrounds, GIF for creating animated images, and SVG for logos and icons. Apart from all these known formats, there is the WebP format, which is also supported by Google. The WebP format has superior compression capabilities compared to JPEG and PNG formats without compromising quality. However, this image format is not supported by some browsers. If you want to learn about browsers that support the WebP format, you can reach it here . If you want to get detailed information about the subject, you can reach the blog post of our dear Gökhan from our team here . In short, the most appropriate file format should be selected according to the type of the relevant image and its purpose of use.
Step 5: Naming Image Files Properly
Images may have different meaningless names depending on the source they are obtained from or the programs used. For example, an image taken with a camera may automatically consist of complex letters and numbers. However, it is recommended that image files be named correctly in order to provide more accurate information about the image on the web page to search engine bots that come to scan the relevant web page. Therefore, as you can see below, you should definitely optimize and name the images you obtain correctly. You can also see the size difference when the image is optimized below.
Step 6: Balance Quality and Size in Images
Webmasters generally want to provide their users with high-quality images. However, high-quality, therefore high-size images are among the factors that most affect the opening speed of web pages. For this reason, all images to be uploaded to web pages must be optimized beforehand and reduced in size without sacrificing quality. There are many paid or free tools such as squoosh.app and kraken.io that can be used for image optimization . Let's examine together with an example image and tool.
Squoosh.app Usage
First, we upload the relevant image to the tool by clicking on the “select an image” section. Then the application automatically offers you the recommended compression. For example, we see that the image below has a size of 1.3 mb, but after compression, it is reduced by 83% to 223 kb.
