1. Include appropriate alt tags - Search engines can’t process images like the human brain. Instead, they rely on alt tags to determine what is being depicted. All of the images on your site should have unique alt tags describing them, and many should include relevant keywords.
When writing alt tags, aim to accurately describe your images in a few words as possible.
2. Write body content
While alt tags are certainly important, they provide a fairly limited amount of information to search engines. Because of this, you should write body content on your pages to provide them with context.
3. Incorporate title tags
In addition to alt tags, you should also include title tags for your images. Many site owners get confused between these two elements, but unlike alt tags, title tags will not take the place of images that can’t be displayed. Instead, they pop up when users move their mouse over an image
4. Minimize file size
Search engine rankings are based on many factors, including page load time. The larger the image files on a page are, the longer it will take to load. If your pages take a long time, your rankings may suffer from that alone. And if they take so long that users get frustrated and leave before they even see your content, your rankings could suffer even more.
Keep file sizes smaller to ensure shorter load times on each page. There’s no hard rule for file size, although anything larger than a few hundred kilobytes is probably going to hurt site speed. If you can’t find a way to compress images, consider following the next step.
5. Consider different formats
You might think file types are interchangeable when it comes to images. Who cares if a picture is a JPEG, PNG, or GIF? Actually, visitors will. If you have a ton of images, some of them will need to be compressed to ensure site speed. That sometimes means switching to a smaller file type.
In most cases, JPEG files take up the least space without compromising quality. If you can’t convert images to JPEG, PNG is another relatively small alternative.
6. Share your photos
As with pages full of written content, the rankings of image-heavy reach are impacted by links. The more links your site has from high authority sites, the better your chances of ranking well. Because of this, it’s in your best interest to have as many people see (and if possible link to) your content as possible.
7. Connect with other bloggers
Building relationships with industry influencers is an important part of SEO. Start by visiting other photography websites and blogs. Leave insightful comments on blog posts, and engage with other photographers on social media.
Contact them to see if you can create a guest post on their blogs. This will help you build relationships with influences in the photography industry and might score you some social mentions and links to your content.
You can also invite other photo bloggers to guest post on your blog. This will bring their network of followers to your site and help you gain traction among fans. As more and more people link to your website, your pages will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
8. Post Frequently
Maintaining a frequent upload schedule will keep your image-heavy website or blog fresh and help with search engine rankings. When you post new updates, search engines will crawl your website or blog, and new content can help generate traffic from search engines. Scheduling regular posts will keep site visitors engaged with your content and encourage them to come back for more.
Source : https://www.webpagefx.com/internet-marketing/seo-for-image-heavy-sites.html
