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#TellMeHow …To Optimise My School Website Photos for Search Engines

Jan 04 2018

Are your school website photos optimised for search engines? If you’re unsure what that even means then chances are your school photos aren’t!

What can optimising your school photos do? Well optimised images actually play two very important roles by:

  1. Increasing website traffic through image-based search engines such as Google and
  2. Reducing your website load speed, thereby increasing your website ranking

But don’t worry – you don’t need to optimise every photo on your school website. Instead, focus on the key pages that you want to be found in search results. And optimising your photos is easier than you may think. Follow the 3 easy steps below to create SEO friendly photos for your school website:

1 – Name Your Photos Correctly

You may not be aware, but your image name plays a role in image search results. Follow the simple steps below to using the proper naming convention for your photos:

  • Don’t use just one word (or words together) to name your photos. Use dashes or hyphens (not underscores) to separate the words in the image name
  • Use a name that describes the photo
  • Use the webpage keywords in the name of your photo

For example use the following for a photo on your Sports webpage:  Students-Playing-SportsName-YourSchoolName.jpg

2 – Use Your Alt Tags

What’s an Alt tag? An Alt tag is part of your website’s HTML code and gives a description of the image to display if photos are not displaying. More importantly, the Alt tag tells Google what your image is about and can help with keyword relevancy of your website and to rank your photos on search result pages (SERPS).

Alt tags are given to photos when you upload them to your website via your Content Management System (CMS).
Guidelines to follow:

  • Limit the text to 150 characters or less to be found on Google
  • Put keywords towards the beginning of your Alt tag
  • Make the description relevant to the page it’s on if possible

For example: Students Playing SportsName at YourSchoolName
[/su_column]

3 - Reduce Your Photo File Size

Although not as critical as with commercial sites, with more and more visitors viewing your school website on mobile devices, page loading time has become more of a consideration. And in addition to the User experience, Google uses page load time as one of the factors in their ranking algorithm.

What to do? Reduce your photo file sizes if necessary. Using an image editing software such as Photoshop or GIMP (free tool) use the following rules as often as possible:

  • optimise your image for the smallest physical size required for your webpage outside your CMS. Even when reduced within your CMS, your image will still contain information on the larger size. Speak to your web provider for guidance on your image sizes
  • chose the appropriate file type. For photos save your file as a JPEG (this will provide the highest compressed file size), for all else (logos, artwork etc), you'll want to use a PNG
  • use the 'Save for Web' feature in your editing software (such as Photoshop) as it will further reduce the file size without losing your image quality
  • enter your URL into Google's PageSpeed tool to see their recommendation of images that can be reduced to increase your website speed:  https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Optimising your school website photos can take a little extra time, but the results will definitely be worth the effort. Remember a high ranking website is a combination of strategic efforts. Every little bit helps.

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Categorized: #TellMeHow, SEO

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Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

Alta Justus, The Virtual Marketer

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An equally creative and analytical Digital Marketing Consultant with over 18 years education and commercial marketing experience, I'm passionate about helping schools succeed in the digital arena. Read More…

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Does your school have good news or an update you'd Does your school have good news or an update you'd like to share? Spread the word faster and further by getting your staff on board!
 
Learn more here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/106886/use-employee-notifications-on-linkedin-pages?
 
 
#tuesdaytip 
#vmdigitaltips 
#schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #digitalmarketing #socialmediamarketing
Digital marketing is so much more than just having Digital marketing is so much more than just having a school website—and it's always evolving! You may be one of those schools that's lucky enough to have a waiting list, but does Apple ignore digital marketing because their products sell out immediately? They sell out BECAUSE they utilise all the digital platforms!
 
☆ Digital Advertising
☆ Media Marketing
☆ Search Engine Optimisation
☆ Email Marketing
☆ Content Marketing
☆ Video Content
☆ Mobile Marketing
 
Of course, that's not a list of every digital channel out there, but how does your school's list look in comparison? Are you still relying solely on word-of-mouth (NOT to discredit that) and print advertising? If we've learned anything from our current situation, we've learned where our audience is...
 
 
 
#mondaymotivation #schoolmarketing #schooladmissions #digitalmarketing #digitalmarketingtraining #digitalmarketingagency
Would you like to test the #digitaladvertising wat Would you like to test the #digitaladvertising waters but your budget is a little sparse? Then I'd suggest you give Google Display ads a go! Display ads are a great option for your school to expand your brand reach and remarket to those who've previously visited your website. And typically they're much lower than Facebook CPC (cost-per-click). With so much competition online at the moment, even running a small on-going Display campaign is better than nothing. Don't think you can't compete..!

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#digitaladvertising
#googleads
#studentrecruitment
#schoolmarketing
#educationmarketing
#digitalmarketing
#digitaladvertisingagency
#tuesdaytip
#vmdigitaltips
Happy International Women's Day to all the amazing Happy International Women's Day to all the amazing, talented, independent and strong women out there! Here's to celebrating how far we've come and to lifting each other to new heights 🥂 We've got this! 💪 👭

(Animated graphic by @libbyvanderploeg. Check out more of her brilliant art @ https://www.libbyvanderploeg.com/ )

#internationalwomensday #womensupportingwomen #womeninbusiness #schoolmarketing #educationsector #womenintech #womenindigital
[NEW WEBINAR ALERT] Data-Driven Marketing for Scho [NEW WEBINAR ALERT] Data-Driven Marketing for Schools: Maximising Your Google Analytics Insights. Data is essential for successful marketing regardless of your industry, but this is particularly true for the education sector where resources consistently fall short. Recognising this, many of you have added Google Analytics to your school website but still aren’t clear as to how you can utilise this data to your advantage. Join me for my next #schoolmarketing webinar where I’ll demonstrate how to use Google Analytics to make data-driven, strategic decisions that will help you to reach your marketing targets quicker whilst maximising your ROI.

14 April (it will be here before you know it!)
12:15 - 12:45 GMT

👉Register via the link in my bio or at https://thevirtualmarketer.co.uk/webinars/

#schoolmarketing #educationmarketing #digitalmarketing #datadrivenmarketing #googleanalytics #strategicmarketing #digitalmarketingtraining #studentrecruitment
Have you been 'thinking' about a podcast for your Have you been 'thinking' about a podcast for your school for some time now? Time to stop thinking and start doing! Check out the brilliant service Simon Jones and his team at The Bonjour Agency offer to help schools quickly launch their very own podcast 🎙 Well done Simon 👍👏

https://www.thebonjouragency.com/

#podcasts #schoolmarketing #digitalmarketing #seotechniques #tuesdaytip #vmdigitaltips #edchat #studentrecruitment
Easier said than done. Or is it? The best way to a Easier said than done. Or is it? The best way to avoid thinking of your competitors is to focus on measuring your own marketing tactics. If what you're doing is working for you then who cares what the other school is doing! If it's not, then start looking at alternative marketing strategies and tactics. But ALWAYS be measuring them. Remember you have no idea what resources your competitors may be wasting on something that doesn't work for them. Focus on your own goals and metrics and keep moving forward! 😊

#mondaymotivation
#mondaymood
#smartermarketing
#strategicmarketing
#digitalmarketing
#schoolmarketing
#educationmarketing
#googleanalytics
#datadrivenmarketing
Did you know that 20% of all web searches are done Did you know that 20% of all web searches are done on images? This number may be more geared towards other industries but it doesn't mean your school website couldn't benefit from optimising your images as well. Below are just a few tips to help you:

👉 Ensure your photos are optimised in terms of their size. Consider using WebP images or use a plugin like WPSmush that will reduce your image size and increase your load speed significantly

👉 Use the appropriate keywords in your photo names. Your file name is read by search engines. Don't keyword stuff, instead describe the image and naturally incorporate your keywords within that

👉 Ensure your images are responsive for mobile. This should be something your web developer has already done for you, but if it's been several years since you've had a new website it might be worth checking this out. When was the last time you viewed your own school website on a mobile?

When it comes to SEO every little helps...

#seo #schoolwebsite #digitalmarketing #wednesdaywisdom #vmdigitaltips #schoolmarketing #educationmarketing
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👉 Finalsite's School Marketing Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SchoolMarketingCommunity

👉 Ambleglow's School Marketing Matters: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolmarketingmatters

👉InspirED School Marketers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/InspirEDSchoolMarketers

Good luck with your week everyone! 😊

#mondaymotivation 
#schoolmarketing 
#educationmarketing 
#mentalhealth 
#supportingschools 
#supportingeachother
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