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10.12.09 Optimizing Your Site Images For Google SEO  By Scott Van Achte There are several billion images indexed in Google Images. Are yours there? If you've been wondering what it takes to get your images ranking, then this article is for you. Here are some tips to help you increase the exposure of your images, and with a little luck, have them appearing at the top of the regular web search results. 1. Image File Name The first step towards having your images appear in image search is with the image file name. When naming images consider using a target word or phrase whenever it makes sense to do so. If you run a hotel, consider naming a photo of your building as "victoria-hotel.jpg". Use hyphens instead of underscores in file names. While these days underscores are supposedly being treated as word separators by Google, consider sticking with hyphens to play it safe. 2. Image Alt Text Always have relevant image alt text on all photos and images. By using relevant alt text containing your target phrase (as long as it is relevant to the photo) you can increase your odds for rankings. 3. Image Title Attribute Don't forget about the "title" attribute. Be sure to add this and use it to describe the image accurately and briefly. ("title="Victoria hotel photo"), This will help add a bit more relevance to the image and will also assist with usability for those using screen readers and other assisted browsing methods. 4. Surrounding Text The textual content of the website immediately before and after the image will also impact its ability to rank well in Google image search. Be sure to include your target phrase within close proximity to the image in question for best results. 5. Optimize Your Website Having the pages that your images reside on optimized for the particular terms will help in getting the images themselves ranked. Be sure that your content, page titles, meta description tags, etc, are all optimized. 6. Image Resolution Higher resolution images are often given some priority in the results. I have seen many low-res images appear highly ranked as well as incorporated into the web search, so this is not entirely necessary, but can still help. That said, I would not recommend using HTML to resize a high-res image as this will have significant negative effects on your page load time. You can however link small images to full high resolution versions. 7. Image Specific Page Continue reading this article. About the Author: Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing. Since Joining the StepForth team back in early 2003 he has thoroughly enjoyed working in the search engine industry. When he is not busy earning his keep, Scott can be found spending quality time with his wife Lyndsay and new daughter Emma. Scott would be happy to answer any questions and can be reached at scott@stepforth.com. |
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