Image Optimization

Image optimization is applying best practices to the images you use on your page so that your content ranks better on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Internet users have shown an increased preference for greater visual content. This means optimizing images is as important as optimizing the text in your content.

Image optimization is used in order to produce images in the best possible format, size and resolution to enhance the user experience (UX). For Google to be able to properly index the image and crawl it, to display it in SERPs, the image should be optimized in line with Google’s guidelines, and appropriately identified with the relevant metadata.

In this module, we’ll take a deeper dive into the salient aspects of image optimization.

3.8.2 Does Image Optimization Matter for SEO?

Images are content, too. As with text, they show up in search results and influence how useful a reader finds your page. Here is why optimizing images matters for SEO.

Impacts Page Experience

For most pages, images make up over 70% of their weight, which means using unoptimized images can slow down loading times. Since site speed is an important ranking factor, this directly impacts SEO. Beyond site speed, unoptimized images can also impact user experience by causing issues such as layout shifts.

These factors impact the core web vitals (CWVs) of your site which Google uses to measure page experience.

For more on CWVs, see our detailed page experience module here.