SEO FYI: Optimizing Images for Search
How many images are on your website with bland, non-descriptive file names? Photo1.jpg or ourcolorlogo4website.png or, worse, 490-99248Q.jpg? What about the often forgotten Alt Tag --the search engine version of an embedded caption-- which may default to the weak file name or even be left blank? These habits can leave your images in no-man’s land on search engine results pages.
You may have been improperly labeling and tagging your images for years missing out on precious opportunities for search engine referral traffic and getting found on Page One of Google Images - a great SEO reserve. Optimizing images for search can be tedious and some website managers don’t see the value and can’t be bothered with the extra effort. But there’s gold in them thar' SERP* hills.
After optimizing images on MLTCreative.com for about a year or so, I recently reviewed our originating sources for referral and organic search traffic. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that about 30% of our visitors from that category are originating from Google Images.
In B2B marketing, depending on the products or services you offer, it may be very valuable to consider optimizing images for search. All the top search engines have a prominently placed image tab in close proximity to them main search option. Google even shows the top-ranked images on the text SERPs.
Here’s a list of image optimizing tips to consider:
- File name:
- Make sure the image file name contains your primary keyword.
- Use the underscore for spaces.
- Image ALT text
- Create a sentence with your primary and a secondary keyword as well as a brief description.
- An expressive sentence is likely to contain more descriptive keywords and probably gives search engines a clue to the relevance of the image with the content on the page.
- Use good quality images that will appear crisp and clear when thumb-nailed. Use a larger image when available and appropriate. Good contrast and text clarity is key here.
- Search engines seem to prefer images more on a page that references the keyword theme. The webpage should have appropriate keywords in the page title and H1 text, and main content contains a single picture about the keyword theme.
- Don’t store images in a sidebar column or inside the header/footer navigation elements or the engine algorithms will ignore the image as irrelevant -- just as they ignore page decor and navigation graphics.
- Consider copying some of your product and site images to a photo hosting sites like Flickr, and then associate links with those pictures back to their corresponding pages on your site. More people are browsing those sites, which makes them a good, underutilized source for referral traffic.
- Conduct your own keyword searches and view the results in the images tab to see how your images appear, adjust as necessary.
With SEO, content is still king of the rodeo. You must ensure that your website content is well optimized. Naming your image files correctly and using good ALT tags is important, but secondary. When your pages are well-optimized, the execution of these image SEO tips will be a bonus to support your efforts toward getting found online.
Here's Google video that explains Alt Text:
*Search Engine Results Pages
Are you optimizing your images for search? Please share your experiences and successes with this effort.
Related blog posts:
SEO FYI: Page Title Optimization for the B2B Website
SEO FYI: 8 Ways to Increase a B2B Website's Exposure
Report Card Time: How to get a 90+ on your Website Grade
/mh
Martine Hunter is the creative director of inbound marketing with the Atlanta advertising agency, MLT Creative, which specializes in B2B marketing. She holds the Inbound Marketing professional certification and serves the Atlanta chapter of the Business Marketing Association as president of the board of directors.
Download our latest advanced content: