Here’s Why You Need to Have Images on Your Website
Whenever a website is designed and created, it becomes important to take full advantage of images on your website. From a web design perspective, it is now becoming a common trend where the use of images is done to convey messages that can reinforce concepts and sales of the product that you do on your site. These elements are invariably essential and of great importance when it comes to visual communication. However, with advancements in technology, there have been instances when the images have been misused. A lot of images, pictures sometimes don’t even resonate with the information that is present on the website., Thus it leads to a huge gap in the ideas to be conveyed through the images and the information present on the website. Sometimes, using too many images can lead to confusion among the users as well. So, it becomes inevitably important that the text associated with the picture message should be served giving a broad idea of what is being offered to the users.
Here are some reasons why you need to have images on your website-
1. Better UX:
For any website, images are important because they capture the attention of their visitors. They can even convey complex messages. Relevant images rather than going for “filler” images serve the purpose of being pretty and enrich the user experience. Relevant images deliver a contextual message that can serve the need for the information that the user is looking for. Websites today upload an image gallery that is optimized for stress-free browsing is another advantage that delivers user experience.
2. Increased Dwell Time:
Today, the time that users spend on their websites depicts a user engagement parameter for Google and is now a search ranking factor. Google today looks for the pages that have great user engagement metrics such as- organic search CTR, bounce rate, and conversion rates. Images are also important component of the content strategy for any website. As previously discussed, the images need to directly related to the information that is being provided on the website.
3. Better on-site SEO:
Provided the fact that images align to the shared information, it helps in better ranking of the images in the image tab of the search engines. A research carried out by MOZ states that, 26.79% of US searches are for Google Images, surpassing YouTube with 3.71% and other Google attributes.
4. SEO for Images:
Google has already developed algorithms pertaining to image-recognition. Thus, for you as a website owner, it is important that you’ve the images optimized. It is also a good practice when it comes to SEO. The research carried out by MOZ also shows the images can be a good source of traffic. Image recognition algorithms used by Google determine the filler images and stock photos are not going to rank.
5. Using Smart File Names:
In case you have managed to use the original image, relevant to the text, then make sure that you don’t upload it with a random name. The best SEO practice is using a relevant and a smart file name. You should use file names that explains the subject of your image.
- Alt Attribute: The alt attribute is used by the search engines for describing the images with higher accuracy. Though Google can identify what the image is all about, however, it can’t describe where it was captured. The alt tag is used for completing this information. You should use natural language when you write an alt attribute as it is displayed to the screen readers and also used by the web browsers for the visually impaired users. For this segment of users, do end your alt attribute with a full stop.
- Title Attribute: The title attribute is often intended as a call to action and mainly used when the image is redirected to another page. It is displayed only when the user hovers his mouse over the image.
6. Optimizing Images for Web Usage:
You being the website owner needs to optimize your images so that they are loaded faster. Image optimization has a direct relation with page speed and page speed is a ranking factor for the websites used by Google. Also, faster loading pages helps in retaining the users on your website leading to higher session times and lower bounce rates. Remember to decrease the size of your files using image compressor tools.
Concluding Notes
Images play a very important role for websites as they are easy to understand and information can be transmitted faster using images than going for texts. As a website owner, you should look forward for not using stock images, low-quality images and filler images. Always go for high-quality original images that represent the actual subject. As a lot of online users prefer social media and are enthusiastic to share the images, do add the share buttons for social media on your images. You can also add proper descriptions having hashtags that are assigned to images and this encourages your users to share these images.