Images make a page attractive, but to search engines they're essentially just files. Google is getting better at seeing what's in a photo, but it still leans heavily on the text around it. At the same time, images are often the heaviest part of a page. Paying attention here wins on two fronts: visibility and speed.
Alt text: describe what you see
Alt text is a short description of an image. Screen readers read it aloud to blind and visually impaired visitors, and Google uses it to understand what the image is about. It also lets you be found in Google Images.
- Describe concretely what's visible: "Chocolate cake with raspberries on a wooden board" rather than "cake".
- Keep it short, roughly one sentence.
- Only include a keyword if it fits naturally; a string of keywords backfires.
- Purely decorative images, such as a background shape, get empty alt text.
Dimensions and weight
A photo straight from a camera or phone easily weighs 5 MB or more, while a sharp web image usually stays well under 300 KB. Heavy images slow your page down, and page speed counts in Google.
- Resize photos to the size they're displayed at, for example 1600 pixels wide for a full-width banner.
- Use a modern format like WebP or a well-compressed JPG.
- Give files a descriptive name, such as chocolate-cake-raspberries.jpg instead of IMG_4821.jpg.
How it works in Obelisk
All your images live centrally in the media library. Dragging a photo into your conversation with the assistant? Ask straight away: "Place this photo at the top and write good alt text for it." Showing lots of photos on one page? Use a gallery rather than separate images stacked below each other; it stays tidy and loads faster. A page's main image is also used as its share image, so read the tips on OG images too.
A concrete example
A furniture maker uploads ten project photos, all named IMG_ and without alt text, totalling 40 MB. The page loads slowly on mobile and nothing shows up in Google Images. After resizing, renaming and adding alt text like "Custom oak dining table with steel base", the same page loads within a few seconds, and the photos appear for searches like "custom oak table".
Common mistakes
Putting text inside an image instead of on the page (Google reads it poorly), using the same alt text for every photo, and a huge banner that's only shown small on mobile anyway. With every new page, quickly check that the images are lightweight and described. It takes a minute and pays off for good.
Free · no strings attached
Try Obelisk yourself
Answer a few short questions and the AI assistant sets up your own site. Then you keep building it yourself — in plain language.