In this tutorial, we’ll be learning how to optimize your photos for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes. If you upload images the wrong way then you can slow your website down and hurt your SEO efforts. If you upload SEO optimized images you can really help your website to rank higher in the search engines and increase the performance of your site.
Dimensions
The first thing you need to do before you upload an image is to make sure you are using the correct dimensions. The dimension of an image is the actual size of the image and how big it will appear on your website. One common mistake is that people will upload these huge images into their websites when they only need the image for a tiny thumbnail.
These huge images have huge file sizes and anyone who visits your website will have to download that image in order for it to show. Large images can take them forever to download before the website fully loads.
Naming Your File
The last thing you should do before you upload an image is to give it a descriptive file name. Never upload a file with a non descriptive name like synagogue-3445988__340.jpg. If you upload a picture of a prayer book at your synagogue then you should name the image Mishkan T'filah 2019 Beth Torah.jpg. (It is okay to have spaces in the image title. Your computer and WordPress will figure it out).
The advantages of naming your files are many. But it helps google to know what your image is, helps your image to come up in the Google image searches and helps to add keywords into your website which is good for both SEO and even quality scores from Google Ads.
Uploading Image
When you upload your image file into WordPress you need to do one more step. You need to enter the label for the Alt Text of your image. Alt tags are how webmasters let Google know what the image is. If you took the time to enter a descriptive file name, then you can simply copy the title into your alt tag. Follow these instructions on how to add alt text.