SEO
Benefits
of
Images and Logos
Not only do images provide greater engagement with viewers
but if used correctly, they are an essential SEO tool in the fight to get found
on search engines. Images are one
the most overlooked aspects of search engine optimisation (SEO). Many websites have images but few
actually apply SEO techniques to them. When adding images / logos to
MiQuando always be sure to accurately fill in the Image Description as we will
use this to create tags for your images to help search engines identify, index
and relate those images to your business.
SEO Tips
for Images
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Use Descriptive Image Names. Using an image name like
00103.jpg will not help a search engines to easily identify what that image
might contain. If you use an image
of your company logo make sure the name relevant e.g. Companyname-logo.jpg (in our case
“MiQuando-Logo.jpg”)
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Use Descriptive Alt Tags. This is an important element in giving
search engines clues as to what your image is about. The more descriptive the better (within
reason) e.g. instead of using “Fillet
Steak” using an alt tag of “Companyname’s award winning Argentinian
fillet steak”
Neglecting
to do this probably means you're missing out on valuable traffic from Image
Searches from all of the most popular search engines.
General Tips for Images
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Show potential customers examples of recent best work to
prove you are the right person for the job.
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Keep your image gallery fresh and up-to-date.
v
Using pictures of yourself and team, you are more likely to
come across as ‘real’ and approachable.
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Stay on the right side of the law. If the images or photos are not your
own, you will need permission to use them.
(Read more here).
Hints & Tips for working with images
Need help with editing images? Try these resources
below for some straightforward guidance on creating and editing image
files.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Using-Paint
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/edit-enhance-screenshots-ms-paint/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4473882_edit-pictures-ms-paint.html
GIF - Graphic Information Format
GIF graphics format is best for images with only a
few colors: charts, graphs, or text set as graphics. The fewer colors you use,
the more efficient GIF files are. GIF files...
- can contain up to 256
colors.
- support a feature called transparency, in
which one color out of the 256 colors is set to be transparent. This keeps
your graphics from looking as if they're in boxes, because the background of
the file is invisible, letting the Web page's background show
through.
- can be animated. Inside a single file is
stored many picture frames and an index telling how long each frame should be
shown. Animated GIF is treated as a standard image file, so it is loaded with
the standard <IMG> tag.
- are lossless, which means the image
quality is not degraded by the compression process.
- can be interlaced so they appear to fade
in, from lower to higher quality, while loading. This gives your visitors
something to look at while they're waiting.
- are not good for photographs - you lose quality
and the files won't be compact. Use JPG graphics format for
photos.
JPG - Joint Photographic Experts Group
JPG graphics format is best for images with many
colors, such as photographs or scanned artwork. JPG files...
- can contain up to 16 million
colors.
- support variable compression. You can
apply more or less compression to each individual image. The more compression
you apply, the more quality you lose. While file sizes can be made quite small
with this graphics format, you often have to compromise between file size and
picture quality. Newer graphics software gives you a preview before you save -
this allows you to experiment with various levels of compression to choose the
best compromise between quality and file size.
- come in three types: baseline or standard,
baseline optimized or standard optimized, and progressive. Baseline was
designed for browsers that we'd consider to be ancient these days (such as
Internet Explorer version 1). Baseline optimized offers more
compression over standard baseline, and practically every browser today can
read such an image. A progressive JPG, like an interlaced GIF file,
builds as it downloads, going from a crude representation of the image to its
finished look. While this is a nice Web graphics format, older browsers don't
all support this format.
- are not good for images with only a few colors,
such as text set as graphics or images with areas of flat colors. If you use
JPG for these graphics, they will be larger than necessary, and look
"mottled."
PNG - Progressive Network Graphics
PNG is the newest Web graphics format. PNG
files...
- are supported by all modern browsers. These
files may not appear in older browsers, so using this graphics format may
cause some of your website visitors to be unable to see your
images.
- are compact and versatile and can combine
the best features of GIF and JPG, such as the ability to have transparent
backgrounds or the ability to contain images with millions of
colors.
- are still not widely used, mostly because
they're not supported by older browsers.
When to use which?
Choosing the right Web graphics format can ensure
that your images look good and appear quickly on your visitor's computer.
Choosing the wrong format makes your images look bad and take forever to
download.
The most common graphics mistake people make on the
Web is to use the wrong graphics format for their images. But the choice is
really quite simple...
- If your graphics have a lot of
colors (such as a photo), choose JPG.
- If your graphics have few colors, choose
GIF. When using GIF, try optimized palettes that contain only the
colors used - they can cut file sizes in half
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