How to optimize images on the web

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Images play a crucial role on websites. Interactive and attractive design is essential today, as a user forms their first opinion of a website in about 0.05 seconds . Infographics have been a trend for several years now to display boring data. Optimizing images is an absolute must.

Why optimize photos:
Up to 90% of the information our brain perceives is visual.
30% of users come from phones , large images are not so-called mobile friendly.
Algorithms use optimized image descriptions as additional data, which gives you SEO points.
When to take your own photos?
Images are of special importance in e-shops. Image optimization is absolutely crucial in e-shops. Users choose a product based on attractive photos. In e-shops, photography is an absolutely essential guide . It must job seekers database 100% correspond to the real product. Showing an illustrative photo from a photo bank is out of the question. Definitely consider renting a professional studio, or possibly even the services of a photographer.

How to optimize images so that search engines can find them?

Search engines will automatically recognize what's in the image. But you can help them. By optimizing marketing parameters, you can make it easier for them to identify and rank the image. By technical optimization, you can assure them that the image is also adapted for mobile devices.

Search engines also take context into account. If you're writing an article about gardening and you post a picture of a family on a playground, the search engine will think the image doesn't belong in the text. You won't get any SEO points for that.

How big is big enough?
Nowadays, a whole range of technical parameters are involved in optimization . But there is nothing to worry about – just choose the right format and size of the image. Even a layman who is not familiar with graphics can do it.

The image should be of the highest quality possible. There is nothing worse than a poorly lit, pixelated image. When it comes to format, always upload bitmap JPG, PNG, GIF or vector SVG. At AITOM, we upload SVG format exclusively for icons, images in articles are in the vast majority of cases in jpg format.

Always upload the image in the size you want to place it on the website. If you want the image to take up half the page, it is pointless to upload it in a resolution over 2000px. At AITOM, we upload the largest photos in 1024px width . You will rarely use larger ones.

Always compress an image before uploading it , this will make it smaller, but will not change its quality. You can try a very simple tool Tinypng.com , which allows you to reduce the size of multiple images at once. The original image is about 500 kB – that's too much.