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FREE
+50 XP
Image SEO & Alt Attributes
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An image without an alt attribute
"I'm a beautiful product photo. But for Googlebot I'm a black box. The bot can't see me, doesn't know what I'm about. Can I appear in Google Images? No."
๐ Image SEO โ optimizing images for search engines: alt text, file names, formats, dimensions. Done right, it improves visibility in Google Images and speeds up page loading (which affects LCP).
Four Elements of Image Optimization
1. Alt Attribute
Describes the image for robots and screen reader users. Should be meaningful and naturally include the keyword.
โ alt="" โ alt="image001" โ alt="Technical SEO site audit checklist"
2. File Name
โ DSC_4829.jpg โ technical-seo-audit-checklist.jpg
3. Format and Size
| Format | Use case |
|---|---|
| WebP | Primary format โ 25โ35% lighter than JPEG |
| AVIF | Even lighter, but weaker browser support |
| SVG | Icons, logos โ scales without quality loss |
| PNG | Screenshots, images with transparency |
4. Lazy Loading
<img src="image.webp" alt="..." loading="lazy" width="800" height="600">
Defers loading of off-screen images. Improves LCP and saves bandwidth. width and height attributes prevent layout shifts (CLS).
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Image optimization results
"Converted 2,000 JPEGs to WebP, added alt text to all images. LCP dropped from 3.8s to 1.9s. Google Images traffic grew 340%."
๐ฏ Quick win: check your site in Google Search Console โ Search Appearance โ Image search. If images don't appear โ most likely alt attributes are missing.
๐ฎ Test yourself: match image optimization elements to their purposes!
Lesson Task
Test your knowledge and earn +25 XP