Thirdi SEO Tips: Images and Image Optimization
By Keith | July 1st, 2009With the introduction of blended results in universal search in 2007, the result pages of Google have become less utilitarian and more like Yahoo or MSN (sorry… Bing). Today a user can expect to see news results, blog posts, video results, and images for any given query. What this means for Search Engine Optimization is a result page in Google carries more than just blue links and a short description of your site, but also your image & video content. So, it is important to know how to optimize for these results as well.
Today, we’ll be discussing image optimization. Image optimization is often overlooked in most SEO strategies, which is unfortunate, as not only is image search an additional traffic stream, it is also another method in helping define the semantic understanding of a page. If you have a page about different breeds of dogs, for example, you might want to include photos of each different breed. If those images are optimized properly, it adds keyword weight to the page, and gives a visual representation of the supporting subject matter. Here are some tips to optimize your images.
File Name Conventions
When naming an image file, the worst thing you can do is to keep the default name:
ie. IMG00436.jpg
A better solution would be to rename the file to something more descriptive of the subject matter of the image.
ie. two-dogs-running.jpg
Use dashes or underscores to separate the words (not: twodogsrunning.jpg), and keep the file names relatively short and concise. Keyword stuffing a file name is very spammy (the-dog-q-tip-running-down-the-streets-of-vancouver.jpg = bad).
<img alt>
The image alternate text markup should always be implemented when displaying an image. It helps define and describe what the image is for users who do not support images (via screen readers) and it also becomes the anchor text when an image is linked to a different page. Again, be concise and descriptive with your alt tags, don’t be too spammy.
<img src=”two-dogs-running” alt=”photo of two dogs running” />
Captions and Supporting Content
Adding captions to an image is also useful, as it gives context to image when wrapped by surrounding text. Newspapers have used this model for years, and its good practice. Its also useful to ensure that the image is surrounded by content discussing the content of the image. So, if your text is about poodle dogs, be sure your image is appropriately tagged and in or around your text.
