.png vs .jpg - Which ranks better or does it matter?

[Carla_Dawson]

Hi Moz community,

I am working on a SEO project (ecommerce) and most of the images on the website are .png and I notice they do not rank but yet the .jpg do. Do you recommend I change all the .png to .jpg? They all have alt text and keyword filenames (no spam

Here is the website www.moldear.com.ar. Notice the swimming pool coping tiles are .png and the swimming pool images are .jpg. I cannot get the coping images to rank for some reason

Thanks

Carla

[Carla_Dawson]

Thanks Lynn,

I see what my issue is. I need to rename some with more generic keywords...

[vmialik]

One thing that I want to chime in about and discuss is image size and image compression and optimization for speed purposes, as images are a significant factor in the page load time of the site. + Image optimization helps with site load speed.

Just a little different between the two types: PNG is better for crisp images with a low number of colours, and JPG is better for a low-bandwidth image - however it is not as crisp and therefore not very good to be used for the layout of the website.  Generally, JPG is for photos and pictures, whereas PNG (or GIF) is for website layout or for computer generated graphics.

Great resource here which is better for image compression and/or optimization if its of interest.

Not directly important to ranking but important in general sense of ranking.

[DennisSeymour]

the cleaner/bigger the image, the better they perform for me. I tested this in the "sexy celebrities" niche where you get to compete with thousands of new players everyday and authority sites. Ive gotten great organic image traffic just by optimising it there.

[wissamdandan]

There is no preference at all that the rankings is influenced based on extensions.

if the images with png tend to be in a higher competitive search queries it might be it.

are all png and jpg original images?

[SEO5Team]

Hi Carla,

You may find this discussion helpful.

V7 Forums

Cheers,

SEO 5..

[LynnPatchett]

Hi Carla,

I have never heard of one file type being better or worse for image ranking, I would think it makes no difference so use the type that makes the most sense for the kind of image it is (ie jpg for photos, png for logos and generally whichever will give you a lower file size). That being said, I did a search for 'Línea Solarium Recto' and your images are the first ones shown so it might depend on what phrase you are trying to rank for with certain images, the pngs in other words are certainly showing up for quite specific searches.

[GPainter]

They seem to have alt text which is good how long have you given it as like most thing in SEO it can take time.