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Image and video SEO: the neglected traffic channel

Image search carries serious volume with low competition. Most sites do no work here at all.

Image and video results face far less competition than text results. This is where the same effort buys easier visibility — and on most sites it is left completely untouched.

Image SEO fundamentals

Filenames

IMG_4837.jpg says nothing. technical-seo-audit-flow.jpg does. Rename before uploading; fixing it later is painful.

Alt text

Describe what the image shows; do not stuff keywords. It serves two purposes: accessibility for screen readers, and content comprehension for search engines.

Good: "Distribution of Googlebot requests across a day in the server log"
Bad: "seo, technical seo, seo audit, google"

For decorative images use alt="" — empty is better than invented.

Format and size

  • WebP or AVIF for photographs; 30–50% smaller than JPEG
  • SVG for logos and icons
  • Do not upload larger than the display size; squeezing a 3000-pixel image into 600 pixels wastes bandwidth
  • Always set width and height — it protects CLS
  • Use loading="lazy" below the fold, and never on the hero image

Context

Search engines judge an image by the text around it. Place it beside the relevant paragraph and give it a descriptive figcaption.

Video SEO

Where to host

The choice between YouTube and self-hosting depends on the goal:

  • YouTube: high discoverability, but the traffic stays on YouTube
  • Your own site: you keep the traffic and conversion, but discovery is hard
  • Both: upload to YouTube and embed on your own page — the most common answer

Video structured data

Without VideoObject markup, appearing in video results is unlikely. Required fields: name, description, thumbnail, upload date, duration.

Transcripts

Putting the transcript on the page does two jobs: it gives search engines indexable content, and it gives access to users who cannot watch. It is the most neglected and highest-return step here.

Sitemaps

With large image or video libraries, build dedicated sitemaps. If images load via JavaScript, a sitemap may be the only reliable path to discovery.

Measurement

Switch the Search Console performance report to the Image and Video tabs. Most teams do not know those tabs exist; you may find an unexpected volume of impressions there.