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How do I optimise my images and videos for SEO?
Images and videos are search assets in their own right. Image search drives meaningful traffic for visual businesses (interior design, food, art,...
Images and videos are search assets in their own right. Image search drives meaningful traffic for visual businesses (interior design, food, art, products). Video drives traffic via Google’s video carousel and YouTube. Both work better when you do five small things consistently.
Image optimisation
Filename
“IMG_4892.jpg” means nothing to Google. “newcastle-shade-sail-installation-broadmeadow.jpg” describes the image and helps it rank.
Alt text
Describes the image for screen readers and crawlers. Should be specific and natural. “Black shade sail over a backyard deck in Broadmeadow, NSW”. Not “shade sail” (too vague), not “buy our shade sails Newcastle” (keyword-stuffed).
Compression + format
JPEG at 80% quality for photos. WebP for newer browsers. AVIF where supported. Aim for under 200KB for hero images, under 100KB for inline content images.
Dimensions
Don’t serve a 4000x3000px image into a 800x600px slot. Resize to actual display size. Use srcset for responsive.
Schema (where relevant)
Product schema with image fields. ImageObject schema on standalone images. License metadata if you’ll syndicate.
Video optimisation
Host strategy
YouTube for content you want discoverable in YouTube search and Google video results. Self-host (or Vimeo Pro) for content you don’t want on YouTube’s ad ecosystem. Most businesses should use both.
Video schema
VideoObject schema with thumbnail, name, description, uploadDate, duration. Lets Google show video carousels in search.
Transcripts
Transcribe every video and publish the text on the same page. Adds searchable content, helps accessibility, and gives Google text to rank against.
Thumbnails
Custom thumbnail beats auto-generated. High contrast, readable text, ideally a face. Click-through rate of video carousel listings is brutal, so thumbnails are the deciding factor.
What hurts more than helps
Stock images. Don’t rank well in image search because thousands of sites use the same photos. Use real photos where possible.
Auto-playing videos. Hurts CWV, hurts accessibility, gets users muting tabs. Don’t.
Watermarks across the middle of the image. Looks defensive, blocks usefulness, doesn’t actually prevent theft.
Lazy-loading the hero. Below-the-fold should be lazy-loaded. The hero (LCP candidate) should not.
Want this done, not just explained?
That's the same advice we give in a scoping call. When you want it executed, we run Local and Growth SEO programs for Australian businesses.