Image SEO: Images are the fastest way to slow down a page, and a legitimate traffic channel in their own right

Unoptimized images are the single most common cause of slow page loads, and slow loads are a confirmed Google ranking factor. A full-resolution photo uploaded directly from a camera, often 4, 8MB, served on a page that takes 8 seconds to load is both a user experience problem and an SEO problem. The fix is immediate: compress images before upload, convert to WebP, and use appropriate dimensions for the display size. The other half of image SEO gets less attention: Google Images is a substantial traffic source for certain content types, recipes, products, how-to content, design. Ranking there requires descriptive filenames (blue-running-shoes.jpg beats IMG_4892.jpg), accurate alt text that describes the image content, and structured data that associates the image with the page's topic. Alt text is commonly misused in one of two directions: left blank entirely, or keyword-stuffed. Write it as you'd describe the image to someone who can't see it. That description, written for accessibility, will also satisfy search engines.