Excellent images are essential for
web sites and can lift an ordinary
web site to a professional level.
The average surfer responds better
to websites that use good quality
images, tending to linger longer
and browse more pages than when faced
with dense, text-heavy pages. There
are many reasonable priced picture
libraries online where one can source
everything from flower pictures to
computer equipment images.
Here are a few rules that need
to be followed to ensure that the
images become an asset to your
site rather than an unwieldy burden
and that your careful SEO use of
keywords in the text is enhanced
by the images:
1. Make sure all your images are
correctly optimized: i.e. a relatively
large image of 600x475 pixels should
be between 20KB and 50KB in size(maximum).
If you use a lot of thumbnail images
on one page (125x125 pixel) then
they should be between 5KB and
10KB in size.
By sticking to these simple size
guides you will ensure that your
page loads quickly. Do check every
single image that you put up. I
have seen images on websites that
are 2MB in size, leaving the web
site owner scratching his head
and wondering why the page takes
so long to load. Casual surfers
will have long since departed to
faster loading sites.
2. Naming your images appropriately
will substantially help by making
it easier for Google to find the
images on your web site (Google
has recently changed its algorithm
to take into account images and
other media more than ever before)
improving your overall search engine
optimization.
Try to name each image using keywords
that link to the subject of the
page that the image is on. If the
subject of your page is red flowers,
then find an image of a red flower
and name it red-flower.jpg. Hyphenate
the image names or use underscore
between the words. The search engine
spiders will see this image name
as separate words if you do this.
Don't be tempted to abbreviate
your image names, thus rendering
them unrecognizable for SEO purposes
e.g. rdflwr.jpg. You may end up
with rather long image names by
using the full keyword names but
you will maximise the SEO benefits
of your chosen key phrases for
each page.
Lastly vary the image names that
you use, when you have multiple
images on one page, even by one
letter to make it a plural e.g.
red-flowers.jpg or flowers-red.jpg
so that the search engines don't
penalise you for keyword loading.
3. Make sure you add alt tags
to every image, which are also
taken into account by the search
engine spiders, once again using
appropriately varied keyword phrases
that link to the subject of the
page.
4. Search on the Net for royalty
free stock picture libraries. There
are many of them, some specialising
in one subject others covering
a huge range of subjects. They
are normally free to register with
and generally use one of two payment
systems: a credit system whereby
you purchase x number of credits
and each image costs a number of
credits according to size; or a
monthly subscription which allows
you to download a certain number
of images each month. Most libraries
provide web ready images at 72
dpi or print ready images at 300
dpi. Web ready images are generally
from 450-800 pixels wide or high,
but this is perfectly adequate
for use on a website. With prices
often ranging from $1 per web ready
image to $50 for a A4 sized print
ready image this is a very affordable
way of enhancing your web site
and attracting both spiders and
surfers.
Excellent images are essential
for web sites and can lift an average
web site to a professional level.
The average surfer responds better
to websites that use good quality
images, tending to linger longer
and browse more pages than when
faced with dense, text-heavy pages.
Here are some useful tips on how
to add images to your web site
with some good SEO advice to apply.
Copyright 2007 Patrick Heathcock
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