How to Optimize Your Images for Search Engines

Today, on this post, I'm going to share to you guys how to optimize your images for search engines using Google Image Search.

What is Google Image Search? It is a search service made by Google to allow users to use images to search the web for any topic of interest. i.e. events, movies, etc.

Images are not just something that will make your site visually attractive and more appealing to your readers. It is also a way to drive more traffic to a site.

Nowadays, optimizing images is becoming more and more important in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A lot of people use Google image search to find images for a variety of topics. In Google's webmasters guidelines, they encourage webmasters to use alternative text for the images. The reason behind this is that search engines can't see images.

Also, highly relevant images show at the top of Google's search result page when it matches the search query that can bring more search engine traffic to a site. See the picture below.


how to optimized images for search engines,optimized images for SEO

How To Optimize Your Images For Search Engines


1. Use keyword in your Alt text.

Alt stands for alternative text. This is the most important thing in image optimization. You should include a keyword or phrase that is relevant to the image, but take note that you should not stuff it with keywords that many inexperienced webmasters do and unethical SEO's do to avoid penalties from Search Engines. To make it more clear, here's how it looks:

<img src="imagename.jpg" alt="descriptive text here">
2. Use relevant text around your images.

Make sure that there is a descriptive text with your keywords relevant to the image and placed it before or after the image.

3. Name your images.

Instead of going with the original file names that looks like this one g521.jpg, name your images. Let's say you have a picture of Chuck Lidell. You could use chuck-lidell.jpg for that pic. You can use hyphens in the file name, but avoid using three hyphens. Also avoid using underscores as well.

4. Use anchor text keywords in image links.

Use a keyword when linking to a specific image instead of using Click to view Full Size. You can use something like Chuck Lidell Training.

5. Make your image folder accessible to SE.

6. Re-upload your images to keep them fresh.

7. Use .jpg as the image formatting.

8. Use Social Site Tag for your images.

If your images has little or no textual content, it would be more helpful to tag it using social tags like Technorati. It adds more weight to your image to help it rank better.

9. Use reliable photo sharing hosting like Flickr and tag your images.

It is said that it helps yahoo image optimization.

These are just some ways on how to optimize your images for Search Engines. Take advantage of these tips to help your site's ranking on the SERP and drive more traffic to your site.



Comments :

9 comments to “How to Optimize Your Images for Search Engines”
Himali said...
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Hi there ..I loved Ur blog......

Pitonhneg said...
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I only use this trick :
1. Use keyword in your Alt text. For other tricks I do not even know about it. Through this blog I gain knowledge. Thank you friend for your sharing. Good work. Always happy blogging! :)

victor bueno said...
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Very intersting tip, i will try it

MOSES D ISAAC said...
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HI,

Very nice article about Search Engine Optimization. Keep up the good work.

Moses Isaac
http://advertisingmanagementbymosesisaac.blogspot.com/

Darmawan said...
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Great tip, it's very useful
I don't know images can be so useful too for SEO
Thanks again!

marketing said...
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yes its true i tried this trick and in less than a month my 2 blogs were rank in google PR1...try this out and see for yourself

Naoko said...
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Thank you thank you, this is what I was looking for the pass couple days and didnt know how or what to about getting my photo recognized. I have seen alot of people getting alot of view or hits through their photos. This post help me alot, thank a bunch.

Volverene Evo said...
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Shyam said...
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Nice Blog Great tips about Seo. I have implemented some of your suggestions on my blog. I hope it will increase will my ranking in google.