Image SEO: Optimizing images for search engines
Here’s the deal. I started learning SEO in 2005. That’s about 20 years ago. The internet has changed rapidly over the past two decades, constantly evolving, which means in order to call myself an SEO Expert, I’ve had to continuously study and implement SEO strategies on websites I manage so I can analyze, learn and evolve my SEO knowledge to ensure the SEO practices I use for my website and my clients’ websites actually works. And I’m extremely proud and confident that my efforts to stay on top of SEO for the past two decades pays off constantly with my clients ranking in the top of Google and my own sites dominating in search engine results.
Many people claim to know how to do SEO. And they usually do understand the basics of SEO..but unfortunately, they often claim to be SEO experts, but the only way to become a true SEO expert is to study SEO longterm! To me, this means to embody being a deeply analytical researcher who learns through trial and error. This describes my longterm devotion to understanding SEO secrets and SEO tips and tricks that truly work consistently to get websites ranking in the top of search engines for relevant keywords and phrases that attract customers and buyers to the site.
One are of SEO that many newbies ignore or neglect to utilize fully is Image Optimization.
One of the reasons I love WordPress is it allows powerful image optimization using keyword loaded file names for images.
Below is a comparison of some of the major platforms and their Image URL (page link / address) structure. Shorter URLs using keywords perform the best for SEO results. Some platforms add extra folder names or random numbers and letters in front of or at the end of the actual image file name, making it harder for Google to focus on the keywords.
- WordPress: https://amazingandhelpful.com/wp-content/uploads/maui-website-designer.jpg
- Shopify: https://www.enricoarts.com/cdn/shop/products/maui-website-designer_1024x1024.jpg
- ShowIt: https://static.showit.co/2400/sOtle-0cS9-qwbPzRp-38g/235224/maui-website-designer.jpg
- Squarespace: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d27d669ba7f980001d550ff/e093c804-70fd-4d02-adab-2d16fbfc405d/maui-website-designer.jpg
- Wix: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ba7f47_78a4a8d2a67d4baead1d437ead818802~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_21,y_0,w_432,h_474,q_85,enc_auto/ba7f47_78a4a8d2a67d4baead1d437ead818802~mv2.png
These samples above are listed in order of best to worst. Wix is the worst by far. Squarespace is pretty bad (super long with tons of extra characters). ShowIt also adds extra characters but isn’t as bad because it’s not super long and does keep the image file name keywords in there. Shopify is pretty similar to WordPress. WordPress and Shopify both offer better Image SEO than the rest of the platforms.
