I knew it was coming!!! Predicted it 12 months ago and dear local business owners, please make sure your web images are optimized for the web. Not for your web designer’s viewing pleasure, but optimized for the web. In 2010 Google is going to use this as one of the ranking factors and we need to start working on this as soon as possible.

Google is already using the speed with which a web site loads in assigning points. Ah, but they won’t acknowledge it…. off course they won’t, but it is already a factor. I have anticipated this and collected some online resources about this for all of us. First some background information, then the available resources that you can hand to your web developer and graphic designer.

Over the course of 2009, a consistent theme that Google has been involved with is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the web, and how the company wants to do everything it can to make the web a faster place. Has it occurred to you that how fast your page loads may have a direct effect on how your site ranks in Google?

Don’t worry, it hasn’t had an impact…yet. In an interview with WebProNews, Google’s Matt Cutts told us that speed may soon be a ranking factor.

“Historically, we haven’t had to use it in our search rankings, but a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast,” says Cutts. “It should be a good experience, and so it’s sort of fair to say that if you’re a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don’t want that as much.”

Here is the background information for you as local business owner.

This link on optimizing images for local search marketing is for your graphic designer. Quick read and easy to implement.

Here are optimization tools for local business and this page is for your web developer, your seo expert and your graphic designer. I use YSlow, Firebug, SMush It, SpriteMe, XDebug, httperf and Cuzillion all the time and can recommend these tools.

Have your developer and designer also study the small business tools on YSlow and the CSS tools on Spritegen

Optiview (http://optiview.com/), delivers a service that optimizes images and code for a monthly fee. I have not reached a verdict on the quality of their service yet, as I am still waiting for a response from their support area. The request was made 30 minutes before the writing of this post, so in all fairness I shall reserve judgment and report back.

Have fun and let me know if any questions around this.