[FAQ]

I’m working on the SEO for my website, and I know that optimizing my images is an important part of it, but I’m not sure what all is involved.

Beyond just compressing the file size, what are the most important steps I should be taking in 2025 to properly optimize my images for search engines like Google? I’m thinking about things like file names, alt text, and anything else that might help my site’s visibility.

Thanks for the help!

[Jeff Bullas]

That is a very smart question to ask. Image SEO is a frequently overlooked part of a good content strategy, but it can drive a surprising amount of traffic when done correctly.

Optimising your images is about giving search engines like Google as much context as possible about what the image contains, which helps both your images and your web pages to rank higher in search results.

Here are the most important steps. First, before you even upload an image to your website, you must give it a descriptive, keyword-rich file name. Instead of a generic name like IMG_9021.jpg, you should rename it to something like blue-nike-running-shoes.jpg. Use hyphens to separate the words. This is one of the first and clearest signals you can give a search engine about the image’s content.

The next critical step is to write descriptive alt text for every image you upload. The alt text, or alternative text, describes the image for search engines and for users with screen readers. It should be a clear, concise description of what is in the image, and you should include your target keyword if it fits naturally and accurately describes what is being shown.

Third, you need to optimise the file size of your images. As we have discussed before, large images slow down your website, which is a major negative ranking factor. You must compress your images to the smallest possible file size without a major loss in visual quality. Using modern, efficient file formats like WebP can also significantly help with this.

Finally, the context surrounding the image on your page is very important. The text in your paragraphs and the headings near your image help Google to further understand what it is about. Ensure that the content around your image is highly relevant to what the image depicts.

In summary, good image SEO is a combination of several factors. By using descriptive file names, writing helpful alt text, compressing your file sizes, and placing your images within relevant on-page text, you give search engines all the information they need to understand and rank your visual content.

Cheers,

Jeff

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