SEO for local businesses pt. 6

SEO for local businesses in Hawaii

An in-depth series — Part 6 — SEO Basics

SEO basics for local businesses in Hawaii: images analysis. In this sixth in our series on SEO, we will go over details of basic SEO images analysis. This series discusses comprehensive on-site analysis. Another series will address on-page SEO analysis.

What is SEO?

For more details on what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves, see part 1 in this series.

A comprehensive website audit will address the following aspects of your website: 

  1. Basic Health Check
  2. Pages Analysis
  3. Meta Analysis 
  4. Content Analysis 
  5. Links Analysis 
  6. Images Analysis (covered in this article)
  7. Mobile & Desktop Optimization
  8. Usability & Technologies

Since we already covered Basic Health Check in the first part of this series, this article covers details on Images Analysis. Other articles in this series will address the remaining aspects listed above.

What is "Images Analysis?"

Images analysis refers to the quality of images on your site. It includes checking to make sure each image 1.) exists and 2.) includes an alt attribute. When a link is inserted into an HTML page an <img> tag is usually used. The <img> tag includes one required attribute (the src attribute) and several optional attributes. There are 14 attributes available on the <img> element. The most highly recommended is the alt attribute. Have you ever saved or copied an image from the web? If so, the name of the saved file is take from the alt attribute. You can also specify the width and height of the image using the width and height attributes. These attributes are available in the User Interface of WordPress and all other major web design applications.

SEO Basics: Images Analysis

  1. Alt attribute: Ensure every image has a descriptive alt attribute. This is practically a requirement for search engines; missing alt tags are not good. Alt tags should be descriptive of the image or page that the image is one. If a user has images blocked, or is using assistive technologies, the alt tag will appear in place of the actual image. 
    1. Avoid using more than 7 words in the alt tag.
    2. Add keywords to your alt tags (avoid keyword stuffing)
  2. Specify width and height: Explicitly specifying the width and height for each image will increase your page load time (and SEO ranking) because the browser can reserve a spot on the page for the image while the actual resource loads. 
  3. Use high-quality images: High-quality images are recommended; however, the topic of image processing for the web is beyond the scope of this article. I recommend cloudimage or a full-featured CDN like Cloudfront.
  4. 4xx status: Avoid 404 errors. Make sure all of your images exist without syntax errors. If loading remote images from a third party, periodically ensure the image are still loading. A great tool for this and other maintenance chores on your site is Scrutiny by Peacock Media. 

Local businesses in Hawaii can benefit from following the directives of SEO experts; for further reading, see this authoritative starter guide. If you are interested in executing your own SEO plan, I recommend using SE Ranking. Their plan includes 35+ SEO tools to help you optimize your site; it also includes an in-depth guide on implementing an online marketing plan. Otherwise, I recommend running our FREE on-page SEO audit. This is a free SEO audit for a single page. We understand you have your choice in Hawaii SEO companies, that's why we are committed to providing neutral advice; consultation that is truly in your best interest. For an objective approach in SEO web design in Hawaii, contact Vital Tech Results.