Optimization of images for SEO used to be a straightforward formula; however, as algorithms for search engines and technology evolve, and image optimization becomes, it appears different from what it did two years back.
What makes the optimization of images in SEO so crucial?
Although best practices for optimizing images haven’t changed since the first list of guidelines, your SEO department should be aware of the most recent tools for image compression and procedures for sizing.
Take a look at these excerpts from a forthcoming Study of SEO, and you’ll be able to see the benefits of investing the effort and time to prioritize it:
Image Optimization and Rankings
Background The situation: We were engaged in an SEO campaign to promote a new URL. The targeted keywords were rated as brutal at 70 percent. We were aware that SEO would take longer than a few months to generate leads for this new domain; however, after taking charge of the tech SEO things, including pages in support of the primary strategy of utilizing keywords and establishing the credibility of the site by selecting an excellent backlink profile, The website was placed on the 2nd page on the SERP for the most valuable keywords and also a few Page 1 ranking.
As we move forward with the plan to be implemented for the coming quarter, I spotted that the Core Web Vitals Report in Google Search Console had an extremely high amount of URLs with issues in the Mobile Report. The number of URLs included was too significant to search the website’s pages, and I needed an “all-in-one” solution and speedy! Google announced that mobile-first indexing of ALL websites would be an SEO ranking factor in September 2020. however, due to the difficulties caused by COVID-19, they’ve pushed the launch of Mobile-First Indexing to March 2021.
After investigating (hat suggestion, Ezoic), I learned about Next-Gen images, The ShortPixel Image Optimization plugin, and the WebP Express Plugin. I downloaded the plugins, after which, within thirty days, organic sessions grew by 86 percent! In just 30 days, organic sessions grew by 2000 percent!
Google Analytics shows the jump in organic sessions. Our tool for tracking in SEMrush revealed a rise in page one ranking across the web!
The position tracker within SEMrush shows the rise in rankings in the first 30 days:
The time it takes to load images can be increased loading time on a website, leading to more bounce rates.
The time it takes to load images can adversely impact your page’s overall performance and reduce the time it takes to load the entire site. A slow load time can affect the bounce rate. Website users will leave before viewing your entire web website or blog post, particularly if it’s loading on mobile devices.
