Crawlability

Choosing the Right Image File Type

Image: Schema

Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand your content more deeply, increasing the chances of appearing in rich results.

1. JSON-LD (Recommended Manual Method)

Adding a <script> tag to your HTML is Google’s preferred method for manual implementation.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "ImageObject",
  "contentUrl": "https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/aiwiz-ceo-year-2024-award-manchester-digital-marketing-agency.webp",
  "creditText": "AIWIZ Digital Marketing",
  "creator": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "AIWIZ Digital Marketing"
  },
  "caption": "Official award graphic for Most Innovative Digital Marketing CEO (England) 2024.",
  "name": "AIWIZ Digital Marketing - CEO of The Year Award 2024",
  "description": "The graphic celebrating Lima Alhawamdeh of AIWIZ Digital Marketing winning the CEO of The Year Award 2024 from SME News.",
  "uploadDate": "2025-02-19"
}

Understanding the JSON-LD Fields

@context: Defines the vocabulary being used (always schema.org).

@type: Specifies the type of item (in this case, `ImageObject`).

contentUrl: The direct, absolute URL of the image file.

creditText/creator: Gives credit to the person or organization that created the image.

caption/name/description: Provides descriptive information that helps search engines understand the image’s subject matter.

uploadDate: The date the image was published.

2. Inline Microdata

This method involves adding attributes directly to your HTML tags. It’s less common now but still valid.

<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
  <h2 itemprop="name">AIWIZ Digital Marketing - CEO of The Year Award 2024</h2>
  <img 
    itemprop="contentUrl"
    src="https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/aiwiz-ceo-year-2024-award-manchester-digital-marketing-agency.webp"
    alt="Official award graphic for Most Innovative Digital Marketing CEO (England) 2024."
  />
  <meta itemprop="uploadDate" content="2025-02-19">
  <meta itemprop="description" content="The graphic celebrating Lima Alhawamdeh of AIWIZ...">
  <div itemprop="creator" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization">
     <meta itemprop="name" content="AIWIZ Digital Marketing">
  </div>
</div>

Understanding the Inline Microdata Fields

itemscope: Defines the scope of the associated itemtype. Everything inside this `

` is one item.

itemtype: Specifies the URL of the vocabulary that defines the item’s properties (in this case, `ImageObject`).

itemprop: Associates a property (e.g., `name`, `contentUrl`) with its value within the HTML.

Image Aspect Ratio

Choosing the correct aspect ratio ensures your images display correctly across different platforms and use cases.

16:9 (Widescreen)

1:1 (Square)

WordPress Featured Images

• 1200 x 630px (1.91:1 Ratio): This is the ideal size for a blog post’s main featured image. It’s specifically optimised for social sharing on platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), and LinkedIn, ensuring your link previews look professional and are not awkwardly cropped.
• 1024 x 1024px (1:1 Ratio): While not standard for link sharing, a square featured image can be useful if your blog design uses square thumbnails on archive or category pages. However, for sharing purposes, the 1200x630px image is superior. Most SEO plugins (see the SEO Plugins tab) allow you to set a specific `og:image` for social platforms, so you can use a square image on your site but specify the widescreen version for shares.

Common Image Sizes & Dimensions

Social Media Image Sizes (2025)

WordPress Theme & Branding Sizes

• Logo: Aim for a height of around 100px and a width that suits your design (e.g., 250x100px). Provide a version that is 2x the size (e.g., 500x200px) for Retina displays. Use an SVG for perfect scaling.
• Favicon: The standard size is 32x32px. Provide a `.ico` file for older browsers and a `.png` (e.g., 192x192px) for modern browsers. You can also include an SVG `apple-touch-icon` for iOS devices. In your `Organization` schema, you can specify your logo, which helps associate the favicon with your brand in search results.
• Hero Image: Typically 1920x1080px to cover most desktop screens, following a 16:9 ratio.

Default WordPress Image Sizes

When you upload an image, WordPress automatically creates several sizes. You can adjust these in `Settings > Media`.

• Thumbnail: 150 x 150 pixels (cropped square by default).
• Medium: Max width/height of 300 pixels.
• Large: Max width/height of 1024 pixels.
• Full Size: The original, unaltered image you uploaded.

Recommended Image File Sizes

• For SEO & Page Speed: Aim to keep all key images (heroes, featured images) under 150KB. Smaller decorative images should be under 50KB. Use tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to compress images before uploading.

Image: Example

Advanced SEO: SVG and EXIF Data

• SVG SEO: Embed SEO elements directly within the XML code of an SVG file, including a <title> tag (acts like alt text), a <desc> tag for longer descriptions, and links.
• EXIF Data: Metadata stored in an image file (e.g., JPEG) that can include copyright, date, and GPS coordinates. For Local SEO, geotags can signal your business’s physical location. Be aware that many platforms (including WordPress) strip EXIF data on upload, so its SEO impact can be limited unless you use plugins to preserve it.

Video: SEO

Optimising video involves more than just the file itself. Your hosting choice and the metadata you provide are critical for search engine visibility and user engagement.

1. Video Filename (High Importance)

Like images, a descriptive filename is a key signal. Use your primary keyword and separate words with hyphens.

2. Video Title (High Importance)

This is your main headline. Make it compelling for users and include the main keyword, ideally near the start.

3. Video Caption (Contextual Importance)

While the full transcript lives in the description, the caption field (especially on platforms like YouTube) is great for a short, engaging summary that appears directly below the video.

4. Video Description & Transcript (High Importance)

This is where you can provide deep context. Write a unique description and, crucially, include a full, accurate transcript of the video’s audio. This makes the entire content of your video crawlable.

Video Ratios & Length

• Ratios: Use 16:9 (widescreen) for standard desktop viewing. For social media, 9:16 (vertical) is essential for Stories and Reels, while 1:1 (square) works well for feeds.
• Length: For marketing and web pages, keep videos concise (under 2 minutes) to maintain user attention. For tutorials or detailed explanations, longer formats are acceptable, but break them up with clear chapters.
• File Size: For self-hosted videos, compress them heavily for the web. Aim for under 10MB for short clips and use a lazy-loading strategy to avoid slowing down initial page load.

Video: File Types

MP4

The most widely supported format across all browsers and devices. It offers a good balance of quality and file size, using H.264 or H.265 compression. This is the safest and most recommended choice for general web use to ensure maximum compatibility.

WebM

A modern, open-source format developed by Google, specifically for the web. It often provides better compression than MP4 (meaning smaller file sizes at similar quality) but has slightly less universal browser support (though all major browsers are covered). Excellent for performance-focused websites.

MOV

A high-quality format developed by Apple. While excellent for video editing and post-production, MOV files are typically very large and not optimised for web streaming. They should almost always be converted to MP4 or WebM before being uploaded to a website.

Video: Hosting Platforms

YouTube

Advantages: Free hosting, massive built-in audience, leverages the world’s second-largest search engine, and provides excellent analytics. Great for discoverability and brand awareness.

Disadvantages: Sends traffic to YouTube (not your site), shows ads, less player customisation, and may recommend competitor videos after yours finishes.

Vimeo

Advantages: Professional, ad-free player with extensive customisation options. Better for embedding on a corporate site to maintain brand consistency. Provides advanced analytics and privacy controls.

Disadvantages: It’s a paid service, has a much smaller user base than YouTube, and offers limited organic discoverability on its own platform.

Self-Hosting (e.g., WordPress Media Library)

Advantages: You have 100% control over the player, branding, and user experience. All traffic and engagement stays on your site.

Disadvantages: Can be very demanding on your server’s bandwidth and storage, leading to slow page load times and high hosting costs. You are also responsible for making it responsive and compatible across browsers. Generally not recommended unless you have a robust server infrastructure.

Video: Schema

1. JSON-LD Video Schema (Recommended)

This is the recommended method for manually adding video schema. Place it in the `` of your page.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "VideoObject",
  "name": "Web Design & WordPress Development in Manchester | AIWIZ UK",
  "description": "Discover how AIWIZ Digital Marketing in Manchester provides top-tier web design and custom WordPress development services to elevate your digital presence. We create beautiful, responsive, and SEO-friendly websites that drive results.",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/manchester-web-design-thumbnail.webp",
  "uploadDate": "2025-06-08T17:00:00+01:00",
  "duration": "PT1M15S",
  "contentUrl": "https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/web-design-wordpress-development-manchester.mp4",
  "publisher": {
    "@type": "Organization",
    "name": "AIWIZ Digital Marketing",
    "logo": {
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "url": "https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/aiwiz-logo.svg"
    }
  },
  "regionsAllowed": "GB"
}

Understanding the JSON-LD Fields

thumbnailUrl: The URL of a high-quality thumbnail image for the video.

uploadDate: The date the video was published.

duration: The video’s length in ISO 8601 format (e.g., `PT1M15S` for 1 minute and 15 seconds).

publisher: An object defining the organisation or person publishing the video.

regionsAllowed: Specifies the geographical region where the video is available (e.g., “GB” for Great Britain).

2. Inline Microdata for Video

This method embeds schema attributes directly into the HTML video element.

<div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/VideoObject">
  <h2 itemprop="name">Web Design & WordPress Development in Manchester</h2>
  <meta itemprop="duration" content="PT1M15S" />
  <meta itemprop="uploadDate" content="2025-06-08" />
  <meta itemprop="thumbnailUrl" content="https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/manchester-web-design-thumbnail.webp" />
  <meta itemprop="description" content="Discover how AIWIZ provides top-tier web design and custom WordPress development..." />
  <video itemprop="contentUrl" controls src="https://aiwiz.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/web-design-wordpress-development-manchester.mp4">
  </video>
  <div itemprop="publisher" itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/Organization">
     <meta itemprop="name" content="AIWIZ Digital Marketing">
  </div>
</div>

Understanding the Inline Microdata Fields

itemscope: Defines the scope of the associated itemtype. Everything inside this `

` is one item.

itemtype: Specifies the URL of the vocabulary that defines the item’s properties (in this case, `VideoObject`).

itemprop: Associates a property (e.g., `name`, `duration`) with its value within the HTML, either in a visible tag like `

` or an invisible `` tag.

SEO Plugins for WordPress

SEO plugins are the easiest way to manage many of the technical aspects mentioned in this guide, from schema markup to social media tags.

Key Features to Look For

• Schema Automation: Automatically adds `ImageObject`, `VideoObject`, and other structured data to your content.
• Social Media Tags (Open Graph): Lets you define how your content appears when shared on social platforms, including the specific image and title to use.
• XML Sitemaps: Generates sitemaps for your images and videos, helping search engines discover them more easily.
• AI Integration (Emerging): Some plugins are beginning to integrate AI to help generate alt text, titles, and descriptions, streamlining the optimisation process.

Popular Plugin Comparison

• Rank Math: Offers robust free features, including `ImageObject` schema. The Pro version unlocks `VideoObject` schema and advanced features.
• Yoast SEO: A popular choice with solid free features for basic image SEO. The premium `Video SEO` add-on is required for video schema and sitemaps.
• SEOPress: Provides excellent schema support in its Pro version, including for images and videos, along with powerful tools for managing social media previews.
• Slim SEO: A lightweight, automated option. The premium `Slim SEO Schema` add-on is required for video schema.

Keyword Research