How to Optimize Images for Web

Here's a link to the original article about bounce rates: Kickofflabs

I started this article trying to figure out why the bounce rate was so high on many of my clients' websites. I wanted to create a checklist that I could use to make sure I did everything possible to optimize their websites.

The more I read the more I felt that each situation needed ot be tackled on their own. I am currently working on a site: www.ImplantCenters.com and my goal is to get him locally on the first page for the keyword dental implants.

The first part of reducing bounce rates is to lower your page load time. As I got more into this I realized there are so many factors that go into this that it has to be dealt with in chunks.

The first part is to figure out what's slow on your site. Here are a couple links to some sites that tests speed.

Slow Page Load Times

• Speed Test - Pingdom
• Speed Test - GT Metrix

After viewing a lot of the data the sites above gave me I was able to see that the major culprits in slowing down the site speed are the images.

How to Optimize Images for Web

• Optimizing Images for Web - Inobscuro
• Optimizing Images for SEO - Yoast
• Optimizing Images for Web - Zemalf (Old but good)
• Alignment in Article - Keeps reader from being distracted by flow of article
• Open Graph - Adds thumbnails to social images.
• XML Image Sitemaps - SEO stuff

My Work List for Implant Centers

1. Go page by page and view the images. Optimize them if they are too large
2. Add width and height to all images in the html
3. Check the responsiveness of the images on mobile devices after adding precise width and height values
4. Make sure each image has an ALT and Title tag.

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4/19/16 - 3:38pm - Completed Images
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I went through every image on the ImplantCenters.com site and optimized them for web and uploaded them. I added widths and heights for each image I could and title/alt tags. Their score was 65 and now it's 67 on GT Metrix. I'm not sure what else I can do because the rest requires messing with files. I'm going to have Dan check it when he has time.

Their current SERP score is here:
Implant Centers SERPS Ranking

Image Checklist

• Use a a good file name, not too long but descriptive
• Add image dimensions and make sure they match the size of the image
• Make sure to make the file size small enough that it loads fast but big enough so the quality doesn't detract from the article
• Add a caption for people who are skimming
• Always add an Alt Text
• Use OpenGraph for social media thumbnails
• Make sure alignment doesn't mess up the flow of the article
• Create an XML Sitemap and use images from it