Image SEO: How to Optimise Images for Google in 2026

Images are often the biggest SEO opportunity that websites ignore. Beyond making your page faster, well-optimized images can rank in Google Images, earn featured snippets, and improve your Core Web Vitals scores. Here's the complete playbook.

Alt Text: The Most Important Image SEO Factor

Alt text (alternative text) serves two purposes: it's read by screen readers for accessibility, and it tells Google what an image is about. Good alt text is descriptive and specific. Bad alt text is vague or keyword-stuffed.

• Good: "Traditional biryani served in a copper bowl with saffron rice"
• Bad: "food image" or "biryani biryani rice restaurant food order"
• Decorative images that add no content value should have empty alt text: alt=""

File Names Matter

DSC_04821.jpg tells Google nothing.homemade-biryani-recipe.jpg is descriptive and keyword-relevant. Rename images before uploading — use hyphens between words, not underscores.

Compression and Page Speed

Google's LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) Core Web Vital measures how quickly the main image on your page loads. An uncompressed hero image is the #1 cause of LCP failures. Target under 200 KB for most web images.

Next-Generation Formats

Google explicitly recommends WebP and AVIF formats in PageSpeed Insights. WebP is 25–34% smaller than JPEG; AVIF is another 20% smaller still. Use the <picture> element to serve WebP with a JPEG fallback for older browsers.

Image Structured Data

For recipes, products, and articles, add schema.org markup with the image property to help Google understand and index your images for rich results.

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