All bloggers who write articles and website content eventually come to the stage where they need to add an image on the content they provide. Images make the articles more interesting and improve their SEO. This article will try to explain the process of full image optimization for the SEO purposes.

The images always make the text look better and more attractive, not to mention that they are often are worth a thousand words.

Get the Right Image.
Finding the right image for the article is very important as it should have the same subject as the article. The image should be a reflection of the topic of the text and should have illustrative purposes. This is so as an image surrounded by related text will rank better for the keyword it is optimized for. Usually the images used are stock photos and we only need to add a title to them.

Good sources for images are Flickr.com, for example. The best images to be used from there are the ones that look genuine. Naturally, using author’s own photos is the best idea of all, but that is not always possible. The moving GIF images are not a good idea for the articles, as they will interrupt the reading process.

Prepare the Images.
When taken from a certain source some of the images still need to be prepared or optimized. This includes choosing the right file name with connection to the article; choosing the size of that image for comfortable user experience – including pixels and size of the image. If needed, the file size should be reduced as well to an acceptable quality, removing the Exif data. When all that is done, then the image should be added to the article.

Captions should also be included. This is the text that accompanies the image and it is placed in the gray box below the image. The captions are very important as people scan them, just like they scan the title of the article. In fact, according to the research, the captions placed under the images are read 300 % more on the average than the body copy. Thus, using them correctly is very important. They can either reflect the moto of the article or can provide a certain fact.

The art text and the title text of the image are also important. These will be seen in situations when the image is not available to the reader because of a certain reason. In such case the art text is to be seen. Using an OpenGraph is also crucial as this will make sure that the image will be included in the Facebook share. Proper alignment should also be taken care of. The location of the image depends on the writer and his choice.

XML image sitemaps.
In order to give Google information about the images on the site, the writers should add specific image tags to a sitemap. They can use a separate sitemap to list the images, or they can add image information to an sitemap that is already existing. Use the method works for you! This will help Google index the images.