Images when working with search engine optimization are often overlooked at the peral of the article it self. Images can push more traffic sometimes than the article itself. Search results can be dramatically changed for the better if attention is paid to the image and alt tags
There are actually numerous dimensions to image optimization that involves better position in search results, optimization for user experience and in some cases, optimization for easier sharing of images on the social web.
For image SEO, it can be helpful to think of optimizing images like optimizing a small web page within your site. Anchor text and description tagging along with url structure are the same as with a regular web page
Here are a few tips for optimizing your images to improve their performance on the page and in search.
1. Find the correct images
Finding the right kind of image is actually very important.
Great images can add another dimension to an article or page that can encourage people to share the page and create some great backlinks. Many people have done split testing on text with and without good images and the pages with the images always do better.
Here are some of the best places to actually find images:
Flickr is probably the best service for finding free images. They have a really useful creative commons search as well.
You can also search google for ”free images”.
SEO image blocks
Make sure you use proper licensing when using Google Images to find images for your site. (They allow you to search Creative Commons and other public licenses.) But you have to be very careful when using images, as if you don’t have the permission to reuse it, companies and sites can take legal action against you.
The general rule of thumb is this: if the image isn’t Creative Common licensed or you didn’t buy or create it, don’t post it.
2. Use the keyword(s) in the file name
Just like keywords in post urls are important for pages, the same is true for images. Keyword rich words in the filename is very important to help the engines determine relevancy of the image. For example, if the image above was originally named “iStock_00657891245XSmall.jpg” it would not add any information about this web page, however if it were named image-optimization.jpg that would be very relevant. So t has been renamed to “image-optimization.jpg”. Of course, most images are not decorative like the one above and connected to the content of the page such as a picture of a product. If the above image were used in an article about a product, then the file name should reflect that.
Google suggests placing your images all in one folder on your site, mydomain.com/images . Google also suggests to stay with file names or URLs of images extensions for image file types like JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP.
3. Create descriptive alt text
Alt text or tags are another way that the search engines help determine what your image is all about. Unlike traditional web content, search engines can’t what an image is saying on its own. (The spiders are pretty smart, but as far as I know they haven’t developed eyes yet.) This is why search engines need to rely on the captions around the image, alt text, file names ect. It goes without saying that descriptive text in the alt tag helps the search engines determine what the content of the image is.
If an image is used as navigation, ie. as a link to another page, be careful to make sure that the alt text is about the content on the page that is being linked to.
4. The right anchor text
Anchor text is another very important factor in image Search engine optimization. If you decide to link to images with text, your anchor text can play a role in how your image is ranked for keywords. Use descriptive anchor text that describes the image. Linking to an image using a generic term like “image” or “photo” does not help the search engine to understand what the image is all about and does not do your SEO any good at all. Linking to an image with keywords is as helpful to search engines as it is for people visiting your site.
5. Make sure the image matches the content
The content surrounding the image should be related to all of the things that you’ve optimized thus far: anchor tags, image url, alt tags. When these things align, it helps search engines confirm that you’re not spamming and that the image is of higher quality and relevant.
This goes for all kinds of SEO, but we’ll say it again just for clarity: don’t keyword stuff when filling out things like image alt text. Your alt text, captions and file names should be short and descriptive, not a long list of keywords. Remember to optimize images for your website visitors. Image SEO is as much about user experience as it is about achieving better search engine rankings.
Images as an asset for organic search results and search engine optimization are often overlooked. Images can drive traffic through image search as well as inclusion in universal search results.
There are actually several different dimensions to image optimization that help with better placement in search results, optimization for user experience and in some cases, optimization for easier sharing of images on the social web.
For image SEO, it can be helpful to think of optimizing images like optimizing a small web page within your site. Things like url structure, anchor text and descriptive tagging are factors for optimizing images for search engines, just like regular web pages.
