Image Optimization – Ranking on Google Images

Updated March 4, 2025

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Adding images to your website is important. It helps break up text, attracts a users attention, and can demonstrate something that words might not be able to do. But, when you’re putting images on your website, as with written content, you can’t just drop them in and forget about them. You need to make sure your images are optimized, so you can get the most SEO value out of them. Let’s take a look at how to get your images on page one of Google images.

Value for Pixels

If you want to get the most out of your images, you want them to rank independently to your content. So, just like with your content, you need to make a focused effort to get these images ranking.

First up you need to determine your SEO goals, and then compare those SEO goals against your keyword list.

Then you need to audit your keyword list for image visibility. Type your keywords into Google Images, then see what kinds of images are showing. This tells you what kind of opportunity you’ve got and what is already getting clicks for that keyword.

Standard Operating Procedures

Create a set of guidelines for content creators/publishers on your site. Create these guidelines for anyone who’s adding content to the site. If you are putting an image in, make sure you always do these three or four things.

• Check you’ve got the caption and filename aligned to the keyword.
• Make sure you do the image alt attribute.
• Ensure that the size and dimensions match your SOP and that the file size is small enough to load quickly on mobile.

Targets

Then you can create a target list of image SEO opportunities to pursue. These would be the top 10, or if you’re really ambitious, 50 keywords/ images that you think you can rank for. Or that you think are often searched for.

Image Ranking

Image ranking isn’t important for all businesses. But if your product is unique, or in a niche market, getting to the top of Google Images can be a useful way of getting more visitors to your website. If you follow the steps above, you should be on your way to the top!