Optimize your images

Images from your pages can rank in Google image search and send more traffic your way. You need to do three things to optimize them:

• Compress your images. Compressing images makes file sizes smaller, leading to faster load times. Plenty of tools exist for doing this. ShortPixel is a good option.
• Use descriptive filenames. Google says that filenames give them clues about the image’s subject matter.[9] So dog.jpg is better than IMG_859045.jpg. As a rule of thumb, be descriptive, be succinct, and don’t stuff keywords.
• Use descriptive alt text. The main purpose of alt text is to improve accessibility for visitors who use screen readers, but Google also uses alt text (alternative text) to understand the subject matter of an image.[9] This is an HTML attribute that looks something like this: <img src=“https://yourdomain.com/puppy.jpg” alt=“puppy”>

You can use the Images report in Ahrefs’ Site Audit to check your site for images with missing alt text (and flag a host of other possible optimization opportunities, like oversized images):