To bring traffic to a web site, there are a few components involved. Most importantly, original, well written content and relevant images. Both these components play a crucial role in building site traffic. With the advancement of Web 2.0 technologies, image optimization has gained significant relevancy.

Search majors such as Google and Yahoo! have redefined their search strategies to include images in their search databases and provide end users with the best search results.

A conventional search, therefore, may bring results with images such as photos, maps or product images relevant to the search keyword. For this reason, it has become increasingly important for businesses to include images in their Web sites and optimize them using appropriate tools.

The important task in image optimization is to convert the image file to compressed formats so that they are accommodated in the HTML files of the Web site. There are different image slicing and resolution reduction tools that work wonders for different types of images.

Some of the popular image slicing tools are Smush.it, Web Resizer, GIF Bot, RIOT, and PNGOUT. With the help of these tools, you can reduce the size of the image file and save significant space in the server. The small file size will also result in quick loading of the Web site, making the Web browsing an effortless experience for your users.

Images play crucial role in Web site marketing. The power of images as a marketing tool is much higher compared to a text content. An image creates an impression in the eyes of a customer within seconds. With this, it becomes important for each Web site to add relevant picture information in their press releases, articles, blogs, or even the Web site content itself.

An SEO Consultant can recommend using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace as an effective image optimization tool because search engines rank these sites higher in the search process.

Simply having images on a site will not do much good for traffic building. The images have to be properly tagged and named. The image file name and the description have to match the image exactly. To ensure visibility in search engines, the file names have to comprise of the most competitive keywords so the images get tagged quickly in the search results.

Related article(s):

• Top 9 SEO Blunders to Avoid Following are the 9 Biggest SEO Mistakes which Web Designers & Web Developers should avoid. Splash Page I’ve seen this mistake many times where people...
• How to Benefit From Google Ratings? I was really pessimistic about using ratings extensions after they were syndicated. How can unsatisfactory feedback be managed? Are there chances of small and medium...
• Why It is Important to Integrate SEO Into The Web Development Process Effective, ethical, and ongoing SEO can deliver targeted traffic to the pages of any website. It can provide geographically and topically targeted traffic that is...
• Strategic Ways to Get Good Quality Images for Your Site There are many ways to get free quality images legally on the internet for bloggers to use on their blogs. One simply has to know...
• Flash Can Be SEO Friendly People who say that Flash is not SEO friendly are absolutely wrong. It is just a myth that Flash is SEO unfriendly. Creating accessible flash...