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Two free tools that synergise to optimise images for search

So, we were having further discussions on Google+ about images and how to optimise them for the web. Imagesearch, normal search and their use on social. Our conversation took a distinct left turn when this post by DustinW Stout appeared on Social Media Examiner.

It made me smile. Dustin is a self-confessed non-SEO type dude, but the element of his article that talked aboutoptimising images for the search engines was bang on the money. He'd either navigated a steep learning curve ordrafted in help.

Turns out, it was the latter. He'd drafted in Kristoffer Howes to assist him on how the search engines 'see' images.Moreover, what we can do to help them. As such, the resultant accuracy in the article is much less of a surprise.

But when the article got scooped into the Google Semantic Search Community, the discussion went into muchgreater depth. Not only did we summarise the points Dustin and Kristoffer made, but we took a deep dive into thesemantic elements of online images.

Understanding how search indexers 'see' images

To understand mark-up, we must first recognise how machines "see" an online image. Google, with the help ofDeepMind, is making great progress in understanding images at Pixel level. While this is grand in relation to moreaccurate results in image search, it misses the semantic bullseye.

How Google is breaking down images to make their computation at pixel level less demanding

HTML, the railway tracks upon which the semantic train chugs, is not a human-legible tool. Its purpose is to helpmachines interpret information in a way that they and people with accessibility issues can "see" the web like fully-functioning humans.

In a previous article, we touched on the type of mark-up you can incorporate to help identify what license you werepublishing images under. But the mark-up in that article is only a glimpse of the potential we have to helpmachines understand our published images.

Responsive web design: why image optimisation is so important

I use responsive design in lieu of 'mobile' for a very distinct reason. There's been a lot of kerfuffle about Google'simpending update for mobile search. That is, non-mobile optimised sites have less chance of showing up inmobile search than those that are "mobile-friendly".

Responsive design should have a positive impact on user-friendliness on any content platform. So that's whatwe're going to look at, below. Whether it's worth everyone optmising for mobile is conjecture.

Although it may be a way to squeeze customers for more money, as an SEO, you still have to prove ROI. Thereare doubts that the demographic for many mobile users will benefit many sites that employ SEOs.

Many preaching the urgency for "mobile friendly" updates to their clients' sites will end up with egg on their facewhen figures don't rise in line with (undeliverable) expectations. But that's for another time.

Responsive in my book means a great experience however your user finds your website. For that, it's imperativethat you nail fast load speed, a ranking factor across all search mediums.

But we also have to consider semantics. How does your image relate to searcher's intent?

Great, your page loads fast and your alt text is a close match to the search string. But if it's not relevant to thequery intent, you've blown it. And that's where the difference between applying a fit title, description and alt textand full semantic mark up can make the difference for you.

Toolbox Tip:

your alt text should read so that a blind person visiting your site would not know that they're notseeing an image.

The words describing the image should fit fluently in line with your prose, providing a smooth,accessible experience for the impaired visitor.

Irfanview and GeoSetter - Resize and Encode your images

The first thing you need to do is download the two free programs we're going to use to mark up our images. Theyare:

1. Irfanview;

and the plug-ins contributors have made: Irfanview Plugins (exe);

2. GeoSetter;

I downloaded Irfanview from CNET (I think - but I've had it for three years, so don't quote me on that). But youmay well have your own favourite repository from those offered on the download page.

Geosetter, the setup_exe didn't work for me, but the zip file was just dandy. I also created an account. There's noharm in helping freeware sources build their own resource, where applicable.

Why Irfanview?

Geosetter, I'd never heard of. When researching EXIF data, I was pointed its way by an article on data editors onDigital Inspiration. But what a find.

But why, of all the image editors, should I choose Irfanview?

One of the reasons ties in with something Dustin shares in the catalytic post I mention at the outset. Dustin's agreat one for being up to date with the right image sizes for the social platform of your choice.

Very often, we create the same epic image, but adopting their size to each platform is so labour-intensive.

With Irfanview, when you come to resize your bespoke image sizes, you can save each size as a template in the

resize image function in Irfanview

settings. This is invaluable when it comes to distribution of similar content across multiple platforms.

This ties in nicely with the first aspect we need to look at. Resizing our images to optimise page load speed, but ina way that the image is still clear.

Using the "Glimpse" image above, we'll look at resizing the object with the RIOT plugin you've downloaded withIrfanview. Then we'll look at adding EXIF data to the resized image with both Irfanview and, for bulk processing,Geosetter.

Resizing/Sampling your imagewith Irfanview/RIOT

Once you've downloaded the threepieces of software (Irfanview, its pluginsand Geosetter), restart your computer.This is just a double-check measure toensure your new programs have accessto all your drives.

Open Irfanview (click the Start menu and type Irfanview in the search box if you've not created a taskbar/desktopshortcut). In the top left corner of the open program, choose File > Open or simply type the letter "O". Thennavigate to an existing image on your PC that you want to optimise, click the image and it will open in theIrfanview editor.

The command ribbon across the top shows several options:

File | Edit | Image | Options | View | Help

With your image open in the Irfanview editor, click the word "Options"; a drop-down menu will offer manyprompts.

To perform a lossless resize, you need to choose "JPG Lossless Rotation (Plugin)", as per:

This will bring up yet another menu. The default radio button command is set to "Transformation: None (can beused for optimizing and cleaning)". This is what we want.

Also, you should see that "Optimize JPG File" and "Apply original EXIF data to new file" are ticked. We want toleave them that way, too.

All that you need to do is press the "Start" button and the software will optimise your image. You can do all mannerof fancy things, here. But for most people who just want a great looking image that loads faster, the defaultsettings work just fine.

Toolbox Tip:

for even greater compression, when saving the image, choose the "Save as web" option. Thistakes you to the two-panel RIOT dashboard. You'll see your existing image in the left and an evenmore compressed version in the right panel.

To compress the image further, hit the save button and it will save as the reduced size file. You canalso have a play around with sizes and ratios in the RIOT plugin before pressing save.

What is EXIF and IPTC data

If you've been paying attention, you'll have noticed several prompts in the Irfanview images rendered here to dateto amend EXIF data. The reason I've not mentioned these before is because we're going to update that data now,but in a more in depth manner.

EXIF data is the data that a smartphone or digital device stamps on a recording. This could be audio, a photo or avideo, and is an indelible stamp added by the machine that made it.

IPTC is the recognised body that launched the need for such file data to be stored. The keywords, location data,origin and category information metadata helps news and publishing companies identify specific media.

You can read more about IPTC here. The reason it's important for our exercise is because it's under this tab thatIrfanview hides the metadata that we can edit.

Still in the Irfanview window you have open, look up to the command ribbon again and click "Image". The firstprompt on the dropdowm menu is "Information"; either click that or type in "I".

This will show you the metadata that Irfanview has extracted about the image.

This includes size, resolution (which you can change), where it's stored and much more. Beneath the table aretwo buttons, "EXIF info*" and "IPTC info". Click "IPTC".

This opens up a whole other box of options. Here, you can really optimise your image for discoverability:

The amount of IPTC data you can enter is comprehensive. From the author name and their byline to the preciselocation and date, you can safeguard copyright. From a search point of view, you can add a category, sub-category, keywords and, from a Google Local aspect, location again is important.

When thinking about the keywords you want to add, they - and the image - need to be relevant to the content inthe same article. The category should also align with the topic, concept or ontology of the words around theimage.

The incorrect use of an image or the way it's tagged leads to bad user experiences. We all know what searchengines think about those: penalty time!

Once you've input as much of the data as you want, simply hit the "Write" button. All of your information will nowbe embedded in the file.

Geosetter - bulk writing of EXIF data

Geosetter has a much more user-friendly interface that Irfanview. You can choose themes and as soon as youload it, the software extracts all image files on your hard drive into its database.

The default load file is, of course, your Windows "Pictures" folder. But if you click over "Images" in the top

command bar and click Open, you can open any directory (folder) in the cloudor on your hard drive.

Any data file that Geosetter can edit will load into the dashboard:

You can then edit just one or any number of images from the directory. Say you had a folder of holiday pictures,but only wanted to tag those with your spouse in. You could select all of those photos in one batch and then bulkedit all of them together.

You do this by clicking once on the first image you want to edit. For every additional image you want to add thesame data to, hold down the CTRL key before you click that next picture. The selected files should display setagainst a blue border.

Right click over of any one of those selected images and a context menu will pop up. Mouse over "Geosetter >Edit Metadata of Image files" and click that latter instruction:

An editable window similar to that in Irfanview will greet you. It will show one main image in the left panel, a list ofall the file names selected beneath the image and the familiar edit panel to the right.

Here, you can enter one batch of descriptions, then hit the "Select Current Values for All Selected Images" buttonto update all of your selected images with the input data. If you're sorting out your entire holiday picture library, theability to bulk-edit your EXIF metadata is priceless.

Toolbox Tip:

you have the ability to add more metadata in Geosetter, especially location information.

If you preferred working with the Geosetter interface, there's no reason why you can't just useIrfanview to resize your images and then Geosetter to add your EXIF data.

And that is all there is to it. Once you've embedded that data in your file, it will travel with the image, unlesssomeone edits or removes it.

This last image I'll share is the same one as the first one in this post, but now subjected to the outlined editedEXIF data process:

Put through exifdata.com, an exif metadata ripper, you can see the additional information embedded into theimage:

Extra work, but the for opportunity to rank with your images in Google image search with confidence? Worth everyextra penny you commit to the process. Happy editing!

Bonus Tip:

you can 'plug in' Geosetter into Irfanview. This makes the transition between the two programsseamless.

With the Irfanview program open, go to "File > Open with external editor":

In the image, I've already set my two external editors as Geosetter and Windows Photo Viewer.When you first select the external editor option, you'll be presented with two empty spaces.

To set these up, first, click in the first empty space, whereby you'll be prompted to browse for theprogram you want to use. Simply navigate to the file that contains Geosetter (in mine, C:\ProgramFiles (x86)\Geosetter), open that file and click on the [filename].exe.

You can repeat this for the second empty space and choose any image editor/viewer of yourchoosing. Once both programs are selected, they'll be ready for you every time you use Irfanview.

Any time you've made your edits in Irfanview and want to open them in either of the chosenprograms, click "File > Open with external editor". Your file will be open and ready for you to edit inthe program you choose. Happy days.