The importance of Google image searches for site success

With faster broadband download speeds, images are now a key part of any web offering … people prefer pictures to text!

That does not mean that you stop writing text for websites – text is keyword rich and clearly a major part of your journalistic offering – but it does mean that you should pay attention to the pictures.

Practicalities … image quality, meta data, sizing and accessibility issues

The size of images used to be a big issue in the days of 28k and 56k dial-up modems.

These days, with broadband speeds constantly increasing and access improving all of the time, image size is less of an issue, but still an important consideration.

Big images = slow loading web pages = frustrated web users.

General tips:

• 72 dpi or less
• jpg format is best
• File size 50kb or less
• Smaller than 500 pixels wide

For each image you upload you need to add:

• A caption – this is essential information, and known more commonly as the ‘Alt tag’. An alt tag allows people who or blind or with visual impairments to use reading software on your website. Under the Disability Discrimination Act, this is known as a ‘reasonable adjustment’ to make on a website and you should make sure you use this function. the caption should describe exactly what is in the picture, however daft that may seem to you ie ‘A cat sitting on a chair’ or ‘A tree being blown by the wind’.
• A description – this will help the search engines to identify your image and return it in a ‘Google images’ search … remember how important I said images are to your website’s performance?
• Alignment – for your website, use ‘Center’ as you have a very narrow width in your layout.

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