Want Better SEO Performance? Consider Images in AVIF
As you know, speed is everything, especially in an increasingly digital world. From faster page loads to seamless user experiences, websites that perform are at a great advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining visitors. Not only do slow-loading pages frustrate users, but they also risk lower rankings on search engines, affecting your site’s visibility. This is why it would be wise to use every optimisation strategy at your disposal, including images in AVIF.
Recently, Google announced that it now supports AVIF images in Google Search and Google Images across all platforms. This marks a significant development, offering a golden opportunity for site owners to enhance site performance and search rankings.
But what exactly is AVIF, and how can it help you improve your SEO strategy?
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How AVIF Can Boost Your SEO Performance
Effective SEO starts with ensuring that your pages are crawled and indexed by search engines. One key factor in this process is how quickly your site’s content can be accessed. Pages that load faster deliver a better user experience. At the same time, they help search engine crawlers access your content more efficiently. This is where AVIF comes in.
AVIF significantly reduces the size of image files compared to JPEG, PNG, and other traditional image formats. Smaller files mean faster loading times, which is beneficial in two ways. First, it enables users to get a smoother experience. Second, it allows Google’s search bots to crawl more pages within your site.
Google’s crawl budget guidelines emphasise that faster page rendering allows their crawlers to process more pages during each visit. Therefore, with faster page rendering, you can improve your chances of having all your content indexed.
Leveraging AVIF enables you to follow Google’s best practices, particularly when improving your site’s Core Web Vitals. Amongst these metrics, the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), or the time it takes for the largest visible element on the web page to load, can significantly benefit from smaller AVIF images. Improving your LCP score can lead to better search rankings, making AVIF a win-win for both performance and SEO.
AVIF Explained
Short for AVI Image File Format, AVIF is a cutting-edge, open-source image format designed to offer the best features of JPEG, PNG, and GIF in a more compressed format. It can reduce image file sizes by up to 50% compared to JPEG without sacrificing visual quality.
AVIF supports various image types, including transparent images (PNG) and animated images (GIF). It also offers a broader dynamic range, allowing for deeper blacks and more vibrant colours. For websites that want to display visually rich, high-quality images, AVIF makes an ideal choice as it will enable them to balance aesthetics and speed.
AVIF vs WebP: Which Image Format Should You Choose?
AVIF isn’t the first modern image format designed for web performance, as WebP has been widely used for some time. So, how does AVIF compare to WebP?
1. File size
AVIF generally produces smaller file sizes than WebP, offering better compression without compromising image quality. For most web use cases, AVIF’s smaller file size makes it a more efficient choice.
2. Image quality
While WebP handles lossless images such as logos well, AVIF outperforms it in terms of overall image quality and compression for regular use. AVIF supports a higher dynamic range, which results in richer visuals.
3. Animation
Both formats support animation. However, AVIF’s superior compression means smaller, lighter animated images.
For web applications where speed and image quality are essential, AVIF often emerges as the better option. On the other hand, if maintaining lossless quality is crucial, WebP may still have its place in your toolbox.
Browser and Platform Support for AVIF
One of the challenges with adopting new formats is ensuring they are widely supported across different platforms and browsers. Fortunately, AVIF has gained considerable support in recent years. Major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera, all support AVIF images.
On the content management front, platforms such as WordPress and Joomla now natively support AVIF. Leading CDNs such as Cloudflare also support AVIF, ensuring faster global image delivery.
That said, adoption across social media platforms remains inconsistent. Research conducted by Yoast founder Joost de Valk in mid-2024 found that social networking sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and WhatsApp support AVIF. LinkedIn, Slack, and Twitter/X do not—at least not yet. While the percentage of websites currently using AVIF is only around 0.2%, this number is expected to rise now that Google supports the format in search results.
No Special Actions Required for Google Indexing
One of the most attractive aspects of AVIF is how seamlessly it integrates with Google’s indexing systems. According to Google’s announcement, no special actions are required to have images in AVIF indexed. As long as they are on your website, Google will automatically crawl and index them, just as it would with other supported image formats such as JPEG and PNG.
This seamless integration makes adopting AVIF an easy win for site owners looking to optimise their images for better SEO performance. It eliminates the need for complex setups or additional indexing steps, making the transition as smooth as possible.
Leverage AVIF to Boost SEO Performance
As web performance continues to influence search engine rankings and user experience, AVIF emerges as a powerful tool for site optimisation. Its ability to deliver higher-quality visual content at a fraction of the file size of older image formats can significantly improve both page load times and SEO metrics, particularly Google’s Core Web Vitals. By adopting AVIF, you can ensure faster page rendering, improved user experiences, and more efficient crawling by major search engines.
If you require expert assistance when implementing AVIF images or improving your site’s overall performance, we at Springhill Marketing are here to help. Get in touch with us, and we’ll provide you with bespoke SEO solutions tailored to your business.
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