Images are very important for every webpage, whether you’re running an online store, a blog or a news site. 90% of information that comes to the brain is visual. Having images in your articles increases readability and appeal of your site. Those images have to be good quality, appropriate width and height but also not taking too much of that precious storage space. To fulfill those three points at once might be hard, until you get the hang of it. We are here to help, in few steps.
Tip #1 The right image
There is work to be done even before you actually place images on your website. If you’re taking the photos yourself, make sure they are the best quality possible. Pay attention to lightning, sharpness and colors. If you are finding pictures online, whether via Google search or on some of the stock images sites, make sure you credit the owner. Now that you found your photo, you have to give it a name. Images in your articles have to be topic-related and interesting to your reader. Using a funny picture is always a good idea – if the topic isn’t too serious. 
Finding the right image is hard
Tip #2 The right name
Most of the time when you take a photo with a camera, the camera itself gives it some kind of generic name, like DCIMxxx or IMGxxx. Those kind of names mean nothing to search engines. Rename all the photos you are using on your website into something descriptive and keyword-rich. If you have more than one word, you can either write them together or use a dash “-” as a separator. Don’t over-do the titles either! Focus on the most important keywords and phrases.
Tip #3 The right file size and extension
Like we mentioned earlier, it is crucial to get the right scale and file size of your images. Your web site has to load fast so huge, straight-from-camera photos should be avoided as much as they can. They can be few megabytes in size and thousands of pixels wide and tall. Yes, they look great but that isn’t enough for your site. If you have an image editing tool, like Adobe Photoshop or Gimp, use it to scale your image and save it for web. They offer a nice option that will compress your image so it loads faster and doesn’t loose much in quality. The extensions you can use are JPEG, PNG or GIF. JPEG file format is the best option for photographs. It will keep all the colors and compress the size without many losses. GIF format will show up to 256 colors and reduce your file size even more, but the quality won’t be nearly as good. It is used mostly for animated images. The PNG format is “improved GIF”. This format is great for the images with transparent background. It reduces the size and shows up to 256 colors. If you’re presenting a product, use JPEG image. If you are using an image just as a decoration, you can go with PNG or GIF. If you don’t have an image editing tool, there are lots of websites that will compress your images. We recommend JpegMini, PunnyPNG and Kraken.io.
File Type Comparison (Source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/)
Tip #4 The right scale
You can decrease the file size of your images by simply scaling them down. For this you have to determine what your image is used for. If you need an image to describe your product, don’t make it too small. The details should be visible and it’s good to have a full size image there, too. It’s recommended you use a clickable thumbnail that will show the whole picture. When your images are purely decorative, you can adjust the size to your article. Don’t go too small, again, what is the point of the image if you can’t see it properly? Make sure you align it good, too. It’s all up to you and the layout of your website.
Tip #5 The right description
Once you put the image on your website, in your article or product page, your work doesn’t stop there. One of the key parts of on-page SEO optimization is SEO for your images. If you named your image properly, your work is half done. You can use the same file name in the Alt Tag. That is the caption that shows when a visitor hovers with their mouse over your image, and it also tells the search engines what is on the photo. Write the descriptions for your images, too. You can have a bit more text there than in alt tags. Make sure you use your keywords and key phrases well. Lastly, add caption to your images, with a shorter version of description and a source link, if you’re not the owner of the image.
Bonus tip: XML Image Sitemap
Lastly, a little bonus tip that might require more time. Sitemaps help search engine crawlers to really see everything that is on your site. You can create a site map for your images, too. Creating a sitemap is a bit harder than the other tips mentioned before, and it won’t influence your rankings A LOT. It will help though. If you have time and knowledge, it can help. You can use Google’s guidelines on creating image sitemaps.
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