{"id":2353,"date":"2020-03-17T19:05:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T19:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/?p=2353"},"modified":"2025-05-06T10:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T10:19:11","slug":"3-steps-for-optimizing-gifs-for-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/3-steps-for-optimizing-gifs-for-search\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Steps to Get Your GIFs Found: Optimizing for Search"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Animated GIFS have been a part of Internet culture for years. They\u2019re a quick, effective way to convey emotion on social media. They\u2019re entertaining, they\u2019re easy to digest, and they\u2019re attention-grabbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, businesses are increasingly using GIFS as a marketing tool, with varying degrees of success. They\u2019re a lot like memes in that regard. For every brand that understands how to use and optimize them, there several that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll cover the intricacies of creating great GIFs in a later piece. Today, we\u2019re going to focus on the foundation. On how you can optimize your GIFs for search. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, Do Your Homework<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Optimizing GIFs for search engines is a fairly involved process. That\u2019s because GIFs occupy a strange space where media is concerned. While they aren\u2019t quite as dynamic as full-fledged video, they require a bit more care than static photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bearing that in mind, you\u2019ll want to treat each GIF as standalone content from an SEO perspective. That means researching relevant, branded keywords before you start creating. It means planning each GIF around a particular mood, emotion, or idea that you know will resonate with your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps more importantly, it means tapping into a search engine that isn\u2019t Google. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gif
Optimize GIF For Search<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look Into GIF Search Engines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As noted by the marketing publication Search Engine Journal<\/em><\/a>, there are two major GIF search engines on the web; GIPHY and Tenor. The former is by far the largest of the two. It\u2019s actually the second largest search engine in the world by total searches, according to GIPHY co-founder Alex Chung<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, you\u2019ll want to familiarize yourself with GIPHY. Take your keyword research and refine it by searching and seeing what GIFs appear for each keyword on that search engine. You\u2019d also do well to familiarize yourself with GIPHY\u2019s Brand Channels<\/a>, which allow you to create and distribute branded content through the search engine, ranking more organically for branded keywords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Forget Your Metadata<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Per Search Engine Journal<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Google is still a bit unclear on how its search engine engages with and understands GIFs. For that reason, you\u2019ll want to ensure the metadata for your GIFs is completely filled out. That includes alt text, description, and other context elements on your page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we\u2019re on the topic, we\u2019d also advise using a tool like GZip Compression to reduce the amount of space and memory your GIFs take up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Closing, Use GIFs Sparingly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like any rich media, GIF content should not be overused. You don\u2019t want your website to end up looking like a Buzzfeed article flooded with animated images, nor do you want your brand\u2019s social channels to devolve into a cavalcade of four-second animations. At the same time, by understanding the intricacies of GIF SEO, you can tap into an incredibly powerful marketing channel. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Animated GIFS have been a part of Internet culture for years. They\u2019re a quick, effective way to convey emotion on social media. They\u2019re entertaining, they\u2019re easy to digest, and they\u2019re attention-grabbing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4522,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2353\/revisions\/4522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aseohosting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}