How To Get Your Recruitment Websites Images Ranking On Google Images

Now I will preface by saying I'm not fully sure there's a huge amount of value in getting your images into Google Search (from a recruitment agency perspective) but all traffic is good traffic.

To improve the visibility and ranking of your recruitment website images on Google Images, you'll need to look to optimise them for search engines. This involves using descriptive “alt text”, compressing image sizes, using next-gen formats, ensuring images are unique, and making them shareable. These steps help search engines understand and display your images, driving traffic to your site.

Optimising Images for Google Image Search

Ranking high on Google Images can significantly boost traffic and brand awareness for your recruitment website. When users click on images, they are directed to your site, enhancing your performance metrics and potentially improving your overall search engine ranking. Google prioritises unique, high-quality images that align with user queries. Therefore, avoid using stock photos and focus on original images of your products, services, and team. I understand for blog pages this can be hard to avoid but for all other pages - team, home, about, join us, etc. then try to use unique, user generated photos of the team, office, city.

Here's a step-by-step guide to optimize your images:

• Reduce Image Sizes: Use a compressor like TinyPNG or Smush (for WordPress) to decrease file sizes. Smaller images load faster, improving site speed, which is a crucial ranking factor. However the image size should reflect the screen size. Use large images for desktop screens and smaller resolution images for mobile screens.
• Use Next-Gen Formats: Convert images to formats like JPEG 2000, JPG XR, AVIF or WebP. These formats offer better compression and quality, leading to faster load times and reduced data usage.
• Scale Images Appropriately: Ensure your images are correctly sized for your CMS. For example, Shopify recommends 2048 x 2048 pixels for square product photos. Properly sized images prevent automatic resizing, which can increase file size.
• Create Original Image Content: Unique, compelling images are essential. Use original photos of your team, office, or events. Original images are more likely to be shared and searched for, driving traffic to your site. This is a vital aspect of effective SEO for website images.
• Optimise Titles, Captions, and Alt Text: Google uses this information to understand your images.
• Alt Text: Include the page's target keyword and relevant ancillary keywords. Be descriptive and avoid unnecessary words.
• Titles: Image titles are ranking factors. Use descriptive titles.
• Captions: Place images near relevant text to provide context. Captions help Google understand the image's content.
• Ensure Seamless Social Sharing: Implement Open Graph tags and/or Twitter Cards. These tags ensure that images and descriptions are displayed correctly when your pages are shared on social media, increasing visibility and traffic. Strong SEO for website images includes preparing them for social platforms.
• Implement Lazy Loading: Lazy loading improves page speed by loading below-the-fold images only when a user scrolls down. This is recommended by Google and can significantly speed up loading times for pages with many images.

Additional Tips for Image SEO

• Image Source Tags: Use descriptive and clear names for your image files.
• Page Content Relevance: Ensure the text surrounding your images is relevant to the image content.
• Image Properties: Larger images placed above the fold are more likely to be indexed well.
• Unique Content: Use unique images to differentiate your site.
• Page Rank: Good overall SEO practices will benefit your image search ranking. Implementing these broader SEO strategies will naturally enhance your efforts for SEO for website images.

Summary

Optimising images for Google Image search involves a combination of technical adjustments and content strategy. By focusing on image size, format, descriptive text, and originality, you can significantly improve your recruitment website's visibility and attract more traffic. Remember to prioritise user experience and create valuable, unique content.