As internet marketing becomes increasingly competitive for businesses, any method that can help gain an edge over the competition is important. Most good Texas web design professionals will agree that thorough optimization including photos is a necessary part of any SEO marketing campaign in order to be successful and achieve higher rankings.

Photo and image optimization is a method of proper internet image handling to help with SEO and page rank. Frequently, poor picture usage ends up being nothing more than a website deterrent to a site which can be negated with proper optimization. Slow loading and bad quality pictures only increases the likelihood that visitors will take one look at a website and decide that it is not worth further time. Image usage requires serious attention in order to enhance a website and not make it look unimpressive. Following are some areas to be given careful attention.

  • Quality – To begin with, the highest quality photos should be used since starting with quality makes the job of optimization that much easier. A little bit of photo editing to remove noise and add sharpness or color balance is also fine; however, if not familiar with how to do this properly, keep modifications to a minimum. If a visual element needs a lot of work, either a different image should be chosen or an experienced photo editor at a Texas web design company should refine the photo.
  • Editing – Once any photos have been edited, they should be cropped to the required size and any extra space around the main image should be removed. The color should be flattened and the image reduced to a optimal resolution for viewing and quick loading. The standard is 72 dpi resolution which allows for a quality, viewable image that will load very quickly. A flattened file is also much smaller than a layered one. Reducing file size can also be done by choosing a “save for web” option rather than a regular one; as this optimizes a picture automatically when used. Since most viewers will click off a photo if loading is longer than a few seconds, having a fast-loading photo is essential.
  • Uploading – After all post-processing is done and the image file has been reduced, it is time to upload pictures to a website. The best optimization and indexing can be achieved with a few more added details. Descriptive file names that include keywords should be assigned and keywords should be added to the alt+text of all photos. By assigning actual image box sizes in the <IMG> tags, web page generation can be sped up since the space for a slower-viewing graphic will be assigned while the rest of the page generates around it. Without such tags, a page has to wait for pictures to fully generate before showing the rest of the page.
  • Captions and Thumbnails – The use of captions that include a keyword is also recommended for all photos, as this is one more way for a photo to be indexed and seen as a potential link to a website. Pictures found when a user is performing a search can help bring visitors in this way, too. Wherever possible, the use of thumbnail images helps load a page faster as well as doubles the chance of a picture to randomly lead searches to a website.

Making use of photo optimization processes places much more power behind an SEO campaign. It is good to use images; however, do not overuse them as this could cause a web page to look busy or messy. Optimization of a few would be more successful than using many that are not optimized. Using the tips referenced above, Texas web design firms can build efficient, optimized websites with great ranking possibilities!

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Do you need a great Texas web design company to help you design a website? Call Web Unlimited at (888) 516-0172 and let them use proper photo optimization to design the perfect website!