Visual content has been largely promoted on the websites to grab more eyeballs and easily express ideas and suggestions to the viewers. This has led to increased presence of visual content on web pages. But the downside to this is the large size of images or videos may slow down the loading page which then decreases its SEO ranking and reachability to targeted audiences.
This is where the different image formats have entered the world of the internet. One such file format that has been becoming popular is SVG!
In this article, we are going to talk about SVG image format, what is it? And why is it important for SEO?
What is SVG image format?
SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, it uses vectors that are built with mathematical formulas on a grid to form an image. This vector based image format is made for two dimensional graphics that supports interactivity and animation.
With SVG files the vectors can be easily scaled up and down which makes sure it can be scaled down to any size without compromising its overall quality. SVG has been designed by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium to specifically work with websites and applications. This has opened a gate for web designers to incorporate images with good quality and small size without compromising the loading speed or responsiveness of their website.
Key Features of SVG File Format:-
1. Scalability
A large portion of website traffic comes from mobile devices. With a wide variety of mobile devices South there, websites must show compatibility to each screen size and resolution. This is where the benefits of scalability come.
The SVG files can easily be scaled down to fit most of the mobile devices. The pixel images may look stretchy or out of focus on some devices while looking perfect on others. Scalability of SVG files helps web pages and images to become more compatible.
2. Easy Editing
Editing images in SVG format is easy as it can be done using text editors as well as graphic editor programs. This makes it easier to markup the images according to your preferences.
3. Smaller Size
SVG files tend to be smaller in size than in any other format. Which results in faster loading speed and improved performance of the web pages across all platforms.
4. Easy Optimization
With all the key features discussed here, the SVG files are known to be more optimized for search engines. This is because of their ability to be indexed by search engines and easily read by search readers. This also improves the ranks of your websites on search engines.
Where is the SVG file format used?
With its vector based image format, SVG files have become highly versatile and had been used for many purposes and various projects such as:
Logos
Icons
Charts and Graphs
Artwork and illustrations
This is possible because of the scalability of the SVG as the image remains crisp and highly detailed despite having a smaller size.
Why are SVG files important for websites?
There are many advantages of using an SVG File format, and here are some of the major benefits of using an SVG file format:
1. Responsive Design
SVG files are majorly known for responsive design because of its ability to scale down the size of an image. Despite scaling the size down there is little to no impact on the quality of the image which makes it easier to see the clear and crisp design on any device.
2. Improved Performance
You can reduce the number of HTTP requests your site needs to make by simply adding SVG files directly into your HTTP document. This improves performance of a site as the loading time will be reduced because there won’t be a large file to load by the search engines.
3. Customization
One of the best things about using SVG file format is easy customization as these are easy to manipulate using JavaScript and CSS, this can alter the appearance and functionality of graphics to your liking.
4. SEO Friendly
You can easily add meta descriptions, titles, and keywords in SVG files, this makes it easier for search engines to read the images. This also enhances the accessibility of the images and improves the SEO ranking as well.
Using SVG format with OptimizePics
Even though SVG offers a number of advantages and versatile nature, it is important to use a good platform to manipulate the SVG images to get the desired results. With OptimizePics.com you would get to work on your SVG file format with numerous tools to scale down the size, enhance its readability, and optimize the files. The quality of the image would be closer to the original with OptimizePics as the tools here provide utmost flexibility and efficiency to the users.
Summary
SVG file format is truly a great way to incorporate good and appealing visual content to your websites and various other projects without compromising with the grainy and broken images. We hope you now have a better understanding of SVG File Format and are ready to work with SVG files on your websites!
