SEO is the juice that powers websites to the top. It’s a big factor that cannot be ignored by anyone who intends to use their site to attract customers. But the truth is, many spend money building backlinks, adding internal links to articles, drafting great content, and ensuring the user experience is top-notch.

Guess what, most people forget about; image SEO. You got that right. Yet surprisingly, we are in times when visuals matter more than plain text. So, this is the right time to ask you how thorough you have been at image SEO efforts? Not that much, right?

Well, here is some good news. In this article, we will share with you a few golden image SEO tips for tattoo studios. Let’s rock on then.

Must-know image SEO tips for tattoo studios to boost your ranking

Here is a rundown of some of the essential image SEO tips:

  1. The image format matters

JPEG and PNG are the most preferred image formats. JPEG images are smaller, and sometimes the quality may be subpar. But with good editing, you can get the right spot without compromising picture clarity.

PNG images are of excellent quality unless they are too heavy, in which case, page speed will be negatively affected. The third option that we don’t recommend is a jpg that Google fails to index.

      2. Compress big images

Did you know that images make up 21% of your website’s weight? So imagine what would happen if many of them are not compressed to the right size; search engines will frown on most of your web pages resulting in poor ranking.

There are many tools for compressing images, from Photoshop to TinyPNG. If that feels like a lot of work, then upload the WP Smush plugin, and it will automatically resize images without losing quality. 

There is one more way you can compress images; by using image CDN like Imgix OR Cloudinary. A CDN is a cloud service that compresses images before they are delivered to the reader’s screen. The Processing happens externally to prevent your site from lagging.

      3. Be strategic with image names.

How would it feel if you walked over to one of the supermarket shelves for rye bread only to unwrap it and find oat bread instead? You will be annoyed, right? Here is another good example: how useful can an ordering menu be to you if it is in a foreign language? It’s pointless. Right?

So how would you expect search engines to be happy with images names that are out of the subject context? Proper image titles help search engine crawlers understand what subject they are referring to.

      4. Get your own original images.

Stock photos are great until they pop up on practically every other tattoo blog. Your site won’t stand out no matter how well you optimize them. The spotlight will shine on those with original photos first. So if you can’t take your own photos, spend a few dollars on premium images.

      5. File structure.

Besides the file name, the path too has some weight. Therefore search engines will favor images from a specific group over those originating from a generic folder. 

Let’s expand further—your shop deals with tattoo needles, tattoo types, tattoo creams, etc. So if you are uploading an image to show a type of tattoo, the path should point to a subfolder for “tattoo type” images. However, if it comes from a generic or “tattoo creams” folder, that can be confusing to crawlers.

      6. Use SEO-friendly alt tags.

Alt tags describe what the image is all about. It serves two purposes. First, it helps web crawlers know what content it describes. Second, when a browser fails to load the image, it will display the alt tag, so the visitors know what it represents.

       7. Get the entire house in order.

Apparently, Google uses the page title, description, header tags, and structured data to rank your images. So to be safe, make sure the listed parts are present and well optimized to boost your images.

       8. Include images in the sitemap.

A sitemap is a positive ranking factor and every website needs one. It makes crawling easier. As such, any image that exists in this section will easily be picked up for display.

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Key takeaways on Image SEO for tattoo studios

You just went through powerful image SEO tips for tattoo studios to increase your page ranking. Most importantly, ensure to include image titles, tags, and alternative text. Also, ensure they are not too big and in PNG or JPEG format. These should ensure your images appear at the top or among the top results. 

Happy SEO session!

Recommended reading stack for marketing your tattoo shop:

FAQs on SEO Tips Tattoo Studios

Do images improve SEO?

Images make content appealing to read while also helping the reader understand the context. This, in return, boosts engagement rates, a factor that packs a lot of SEO power. So yes, images improve SEO.

Which image format is best for SEO?

The image formats deemed appropriate for SEO are PNG, JPEG, and WebP. They have great quality, and their sizes foster faster page load times.

Do names affect SEO?

To some extent, image names can have an impact on SEO. Descriptive and keyword-rich names help search engine crawlers understand the images better. Improper or absence of names leaves crawlers with nothing to work with.