What’s the Best Way to Optimize Blog Post Images for SEO?

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If you have a blog, you probably encounter this question – What’s the best way to optimize blog post images for SEO – every time you create a post:

Should I add an image to my blog post?

The answer is yes. Images can grab a visitor’s attention and help you with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However you will need to follow several steps to make sure that your images are optimized for SEO so that your images relate to your blog post and help improve your search results ranking.

Preparing images for use in your blog post

Once you have found the right illustration, infographic, video, or image to use in your blog post, you need to consider the following factors:

Choose the right file name

Image SEO starts with the file name. Make sure that your file name isn’t the name generated by your camera. You want Google to know what the image is about. It’s simple: if your image is a sunrise in Washington, DC showing the Washington Monument, the file name shouldn’t be DSC4126.jpg, but washington-monument-dc-sunrise.jpg. The main keyword would be Washington Monument, as that is the main subject of the photo, that is why I added that at the beginning of the file name.

Scale for image SEO

Web page load times are an important user interface, and therefore SEO, aspect. The faster the site, the easier it is for Google and others to visit and index your page. Images can have a huge impact on loading times, especially when you load a huge image and display it really small, like using a 2500×1500 pixels image and showing it at 250×150 pixels size. The entire image will still have to be loaded. Scale the image to the size you want to show it. WordPress helps by providing the image in multiple sizes after upload. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the file size is optimized as well, that’s just the image size.

Reduce File Size

The next step in image SEO should be to make sure that scaled image is served in the smallest file size possible. There are a bunch of good tools for this. I recommend using JPEGMini for this. There’s a free option but the paid option is only $19.99 and works on both PCs and IOS devices. Download JPEGmini.

JPEGmini image file size reducer

Captions

People use captions when scanning an article. Next to headings, people tend to scan the image and include the caption as well in that scan. You don’t have to add a caption for every image. I recommend using captions only if the image needs one.

Alt Text and Title Text

The alt text is added to an image so there is descriptive text when the image can’t be displayed. The visually impaired, in particular, use screen readers that rely on the alt text to explain what an image is.

Conclusion: What’s the Best Way to Optimize Blog Post Images for SEO?

Image SEO is all about doing a bunch of different things right. Since Google is improving image recognition/capabilities every day, it makes a lot of sense to ensure your image and all its elements contribute to user experience as well as SEO.

Keep these things in mind whenever you create your next blog post and add an image to an article:

  • Use a relevant image that matches your content
  • Change your image file name so that it also matches your content
  • Make sure image dimension matches the image size as displayed
  • Use image file size reducing tools for faster loading
  • Add a caption so users can easily scan your page
  • Use image alt text, title text is optional
  • Don’t break the left reading line using an image
  • Use images in your XML sitemaps

Setting Up Your Google+ Business Page

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Here is a tutorial to set up your Google+ Business Page.

Connect4 Consulting Google

Before you do anything, create a Google+ Personal Profile. You will need to have a gmail account to get started with creating a personal profile. This is as simple as signing up for a Google+ account. Make sure you use your real name when signing up for this personal account, as it will help serve to verify your business for Google+.

Once you have a personal profile, on the left hand side menu you will find a “Pages” button. Select “Pages” and then choose “Create a New Page”.

After you select “Create a New Page” you will be given choices to what category best describes your business. If you are a bricks and mortar business who relies many on local customers select “Local Business or Place”. Otherwise, select another category that fits your business best. You will be prompted to submit various pieces of information depending on the business category you selected. It is important this information is accurate so Google can verify it.

You will want to enter a well-thought out description of your products and services to help Google users find you. You can also enter a photos or a logo that will serve as visuals for your Google+ business page. You will also want to make sure you fill out all links to other social media and your business website. Brand your business accordingly with your logo and colors.

Keep adding content! Add videos and more photos. Google+ loves graphics and content, but make sure it is all consistent with your branding.

Of course, you will want to let everyone know you are on Google+, and Google+ will help you through its own network of Google products.

Getting your profile set up is the easy part, consistency will be the key to your success. Google loves content, update regularly which will help with your business ranking on Google.

Google+ Business Page – Why It’s Important

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If your business doesn’t show up on Google, it’s as if your business doesn’t exist. A website will help you for sure, but creating and maintaining a Google+ page will literally put your business on the Google map. It will help you build your brand awareness online, allow you to share content, and essentially gives you another billboard to get your message out.

If you’re still skeptical or reluctant to create yet another social network page for your business, consider the following reasons why it’s critical that you set up your Google+ business page.

Connect4 Consulting Google

Google Search Visibility

Search engine optimization is all about getting your website found by your potential customers, and Google has the majority market share when it comes to search. If Google offers you additional tools for free, you have to use them.

Blended Search Results

Google+ content – the content that you post on your Google+ business page – can rank in search results separately from the content that is on your website.

Google+ Factors Into 3-Pack Results

google-3-pack

google-carousel

Earlier this year Google dropped the Carousel and replaced it with the 3-Pack display of organic listings. Currently there are five factors that influence the 3-pack results:

  1. location, location, location – local search favors results located in a 25 mile radius
  2. strong social signals – Google+, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor
  3. reviews – businesses with plenty of positive reviews are favored
  4. scheme and citations need to be accurate
  5. good SEO – credible backlinks

Authorship and Publisher Markup

Authorship and publisher markup can increase your search engine reach now that semantic markup has been adopted by the major search engines.

Authorship

Google+ Pages and personal profiles can be linked with a website to generate even greater reach on search engines using Publisher and Authorship markup, respectively. As a result, your headshot and Google+ profile stats can show in the search engine results page when your content ranks!

Google+ Authorship connects a Google+ personal profile to an individual webpage, blog post or article. This is great for gaining exposure and building a personal brand, especially if you’re in an industry that makes you the face of your business.

You should consider creating a Google+ Profile for yourself and connecting it to quality content you write or distribute online, especially if you are a:

  • doctor
  • lawyer
  • realtor
  • insurance agent
  • consultant

Publisher

Google+ Publisher connects a Google+ Local page to your website. People searching Google for your business name or other brand signals will see a “Knowledge Graph” of information pulled from Google+ about your business. You can take a look at HP’s knowledge graph below and can easily imagine how this helps them stand out from a smaller brand that has not yet set up its Google+ business page and activated any of these fundamental marketing features.

google-search-rel-publisher

When Publisher is implemented correctly, branded searches may show your visual branding, the number of Google+ followers you have, recent Google+ posts and even reviews.

However, it is important to note that Google penalizes Google+ pages without new content. If you don’t update your content frequently, you may see competitors listed at the bottom of the knowledge graph.

Integration With Other Google Platforms

You can increase your exposure even more by integrating your Google+ business page with other Google platforms like YouTube and Gmail. YouTube has more than one billion users. If you have videos on YouTube and aren’t yet on Google+, now is the time to set up your Google+ business page and connect the two platforms.

Conclusion – Set Up Your Google+ Business Page

If all of this makes perfect sense to you but you don’t have the time to implement any of it, consider contacting us – Connect4 Consulting – to help you find your way. We specialize in websites, social media, and communication. A Google+ Business page is truly a blend of website, social media, and communication.

 

Don’t Make These E-Commerce WebSite Design Mistakes

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It is now easier than ever to create an e-commerce website for your business. E-commerce is attractive because it is relatively inexpensive. You can have a store that is open any time of day or night every day of the year that is available to a truly global market. You don’t have to hire any staff and you don’t even have to print marketing material. You don’t have send out catalogs and you don’t have to pay for call centers.

The problem is that it’s not quite as easy to create a successful e-commerce website as you might initially think. The great news is that every one of the following mistakes is avoidable. In most cases, it is just a matter of advance planning.

Poor Product Information

When shopping in a brick and mortar establishment, you can look and even touch anything you want to buy. You can read the label information and also browse items nearby. This is not as easy when shopping online.

A well designed e-commerce website has to maximize the shopping experience. This starts with product information. Whenever the customer doesn’t know specifics, he/she will try to find that information somewhere else. You will only end up making sales when you have the lowest price.

Customers will want to know materials, dimensions, weight, size and practically everything that is of interest for the possible buyer. As a simple example, if you sell clothes online, you will want to mention colors, sizes and types available, together with a high quality size chart, thickness or weight. Try to always use descriptive words instead of technical terms.

No Contact Information

Clear and visible contact information is paramount. Customers need to know what company they deal with before credit card information is offered. The important thing is demonstrating there is a human being who can actually take care of a problem in the event it appears. In the event that the site does not offer such contact information or it is hidden and the customer cannot easily find it, a sale is less likely to be made.

The contact information must be in an obvious location and visible on all website pages. Make sure that it is in the header, right on the top of the sidebar or in the footer region. If possible, try to offer more contact means like an email address, mailing address, phone number and contact form. That is particularly important in the event that you sell something that is technical by nature.

Confusing Checkout Process

A confusing checkout process is really damaging and can derail any prospect customer. You need to do everything possible to make the checkout process simple and intuitive. If not, customers will give up and shop elsewhere.

The ideal checkout process should include only one page that would allow the consumer to verify the order and then enter shipping and billing information. Then, a confirmation page is necessary so that it is known that the offer was submitted. If you add other steps, you just end up putting obstacles in front of making sales, thus causing lower profits for your company.

In the event that there is a need to include more pages, you have to make them really easy to be filled out and quick. If possible, combine pages whenever you can and use column layouts in order to separate sections on the same page. This makes everything appear shorter.

Make sure that you do not force the interested customers to get an account in order for a sale to be made. When customers have to sign in or create accounts, this is a huge obstacle placed right in front of a sale. Capturing customer information is never as important as actually getting the order completed. You do not want to lose customers and this is exactly what happens in the event that you force the account option.

Bad Site Search Engine

If a customer knows what he is looking for, the search engine will be used instead of going through filters or categories. Try to make sure that your search engine works well and that it includes as many filters as may be necessary in order for results to be refined.

When a search is conducted and many products are returned, as is the case with larger e-commerce websites, making a choice becomes difficult. Contrary to what you may think, this is not a positive thing. Many potential customers simply leave the page as they don’t want to go through all the results.

Your e-commerce website needs to have a very good search engine. Ideally, the user should be able to search based on keywords and the refine the results based on site categories, together with standard criteria like low price, high price, new item, popular item and so on.

Tiny Product Images

Tiny product images won’t help you sell products online. You need to be sure that you either offer a large image or the product page includes a feature that will allow the user to click on images for zooming purposes.

Site visitors need to see a very large image at a high resolution. Get images that would enlarge to a resolution of a minimum of 1024X768 pixels. At the same time, try to offer at least 3-4 images of the product you sell.

Try to offer product images from various camera angles. Also show products in different colors, on the back, the sides, on the front or detailed shots of some of the features that are presented. That will drastically increase the possibility that someone will buy your product.

Inadequate Customer Service Options

Your customer needs to be able to get in touch with you if there is a question of problem. Ecommerce sites that help customers get in touch with them – offering multiple ways of communication as well as a good FAQ section – are successful. An email address is not sufficient.

Only A Few Payment Options Available

So many e-commerce websites only offer MasterCard and Visa. Some only allow customers to pay with the use of PayPal. This is not a good idea because it makes you look cheap, unprofessional, and short-sighted.

Try to use a good payment service, one that will let your consumers to pay with the credit cards, electronic checkout, PayPal and anything else you could offer. When it comes to making an online payment, offering many opportunities builds trust, which is something you need.

No Related Products

Whenever you go to a store, you regularly see items that are similar or used together being grouped together. This makes it really easy for you to buy something else than what you initially wanted or buy more items. The same thing needs to happen online. For instance, if you sell a mobile phone, you may want to include related products like a battery or even a micro USB cable.

Frustrating Navigation

One of the most frustrating things about a poorly designed e-commerce website is not confusing navigation. If your navigation is confusing, without categories or with products that shouldn’t be included in some categories, people will shop elsewhere.

Before you even begin designing your website you need to think about navigation elements and the categories. Every single category needs to include a good number of products.

Conclusion

If you don’t know much about what e-commerce modifications you need to make in order to increase sales, you should seriously consider professional help. The work that a professional can do is always better than what you can do yourself is a good long term investment.

The best e-commerce website is the one that manages to offer a great buying experience. This is the most important thing at the end of the day. You need to actively put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers. See what they would like or what they would hate and fix the bad elements.

2015 Website Design Trends – What’s Hot and What’s Not

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Website design is constantly evolving. New trends emerge and old trends disappear and then after a few years old trends sometimes reappear. The two dominant themes for 2015 are going to be mobile and user experience and user interface (UX/UI). The best designers focus on user experience because that’s what matters in the end. Design and style are highly subjective and debatable, but it is the user experience that measures the actual success of a website. Therefore, most of these trends relate to UI/UX.

What’s Hot? Simple, flat design elements.
What’s Not? 3-d graphics, drop shadows

Flat Design

The concepts of flat design are pretty simple; strip the object off any design element which is not 100 per cent purposeful in its function. This includes removing any special shadow effects, 3-D graphics and using only flat shapes, buttons and indicators.

What’s Hot? One website that works on all devices.
What’s Not? Separate mobile sites

Responsive Design

Responsive design is here to stay – it just doesn’t make sense to run dedicated mobile websites anymore.

What’s Hot? Websites with long scrolling pages.
What’s Not? Sites with too much navigation

Endless Scrolling

Example of endless scrolling website

Example of endless scrolling website

It took a while, but long scrolling pages have become the norm because it’s far easier to scroll through a site than clicking on buttons and links. This has been aided by the growth of responsive web design, full-width sites, and the use of white space. This doesn’t mean that endless scrolling is everywhere, but it is typically found on home pages and e-commerce product pages. The most notable example is Apple’s page for its iPhone 6.

What’s Hot? Rich custom background.
What’s Not? Stock image or white background

High Quality Custom Background

Plain stock photography no longer works in website design. Websites want to look unique and need to grab a visitor’s attention. Professional photography that is customized to the website’s theme and purpose ensures that a site is unique. HTML video is also being used as a way to establish a distinct, custom look. Bing’s search engine frequently uses HTML 5 powered video backgrounds.

What’s Hot? Interactive storytelling.
What’s Not? Boring websites

Interactive Storytelling

While great content has always been a requirement for a successful website, in 2015 the best websites will be the ones that can tell and sell content through a story. The best example in this regard is the Tesla Motors Your Questions Answered page. The page uses large images and embedded infographics to answer consumer questions about the cars and their features. This website is a very successful example of all of the best 2015 website design trends.

Your Questions Answered Tesla Motors

What’s Hot? Parallax scrolling.
What’s Not? Non-interactive backgrounds

Parallax Scrolling

Parallax scrolling is a design technique where the background scrolls at a slightly different pace relative to the foreground. This adds some depth to the page and is very popular on magazine style websites.

Conclusion

I think we are going to see iterative developments of 2015 website design trends like flat and responsive design in the coming months with an overall focus on optimizing the user experience for mobile and devices of all sizes.