When improving organic search result rankings, keywords, content, backlinks, metadata, etc. are often the first things evaluated to ensure that your strategy is working. While all these are important to the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) workflow, it’s also important to utilize high-quality images and videos to ensure that your content is in front of potential customers, from web search listings to Google News, Google Discover, Image Search and more.
The time and effort you are spending on SEO is vital to connecting with new customers
61% of B2B decision-makers start the process with a web search, while a whopping 87% of all retail shoppers do the same, vastly exceeding other channels, including Display and Social Media (Conductor’s State of Organic Marketing in 2022). But how can you improve the rankings of your websites, content, apps, products, or business listings in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo?
Optimizing imagery can be a game changer for businesses as they look to boost their SEO strategies. In fact, it has become increasingly important over the last few years, and many search results now contain or even require imagery in order for you to rank in them.
Here are five tips on how to use stock imagery and videos to driver stronger SEO:
Stock photos and imagery are a great choice when they are authentic and relevant
The old myth has been busted; you don’t need original imagery to rank your company’s content – stock photos and imagery can actually be good for SEO. We often see the amount of iStock’s content in our customers’ search results and featured modules containing those visuals, that this myth just isn’t true – proving that the original imagery isn’t necessary. Stock imagery and video work very well to represent the content that they’re paired with for Organic Search, and are used around the world every day.
For the best results with SEO, choose imagery that helps customers identify with your brand, the content you’re creating, and its goals. This helps your content grow its audience driving potential.
Also Read: How to Make Your Media Dollars Count in 2023
Prioritize high-quality images and use the right image file size and dimensions
As of May 2022, more than 50% of searches have a group of images or carousel of images in the organic search results in Google. This number has grown by more than three times in just the last ten years.
Choosing the high-quality and correctly sized imagery is important to make the most of these results. Use a high-resolution image, one that is at least 1,200 pixels (px) wide, and an aspect ratio of 16×9, 4×3, or 1×1. When selecting images, make sure you’re not using images too big, but also not of low quality/resolution. For example, if your hero image space is 1200 px wide and 628 px high, do not use an image greater than that.
Read our article about standard image sizes to learn more.
Be descriptive with your visuals
Ensure that you’re being descriptive with imagery’s titles, captions, filenames, article copy and “ALT” (alternate) text around and near the image. Also make sure to use a relevant SEO page title and description, as search engines usually use this to describe the page the image is on, or the image itself if it appears in Google Image Search.
The same general best practices are equally important for video and should be applied. Your content, the words you say within your video, and the title and description all contribute to your ranking results. YouTube automatically creates a transcript of what you say, not just for close caption features, but also understanding what the video is about.
Use “Structured Data”
Add “Structured Data” in the code of the page. This data reflects the technical representation of the imagery’s meta-data, like date created, location shot, file name, if it is in part of another item on the page like a Product or Recipe, etc. For videos, the length of the video and any other “key moments” are also very valuable in that area.
Keep it data-driven
As you might be using Google Trends for your SEO keywords and content, be sure to have a data-driven approach to how you’re selecting your topics and visuals. In order to best optimize your visual content, you need to understand the exact terminology your target segments are using to search so that you can tailor your content selections to best fit your audience – and it can take some digging to explore all your options.
Though you may be unsure where to start, there are now tools available to help with this visual segmentation and surfacing relevant, actionable insights, making them accessible through easy-to-understand charts and graphics with robust data drawn from the world’s leading suppliers of visual content The bottom line: the more data that you can find on the specific nuances that your targeted segment expects, the better prepared you’ll be to deliver content that’s relevant and engaging.
Optimizing your SEO strategy is incredibly important to your marketing efforts, and leveraging imagery and video should be considered a high priority for a well-rounding program. Instead of coordinating costly content creation sessions, you can effectively utilize stock imagery and video to improve your content rankings, and ultimately drive stronger SEO to reach more customers efficiently.