Optimize For Google Image Search
While natural search drives the bulk of search engine traffic, with the universal search results on the increase there a lots of benefits to come from optimising for the other search verticals, namely image, news, video, product and local.
An often overlooked vertical is image search. While this tends not to be the most rewarding area for a lot of businesses, there are still many that can benefit from being listed. Artists, photographers, travel and tourism websites are examples of websites that would find image search very beneficial.
There are a few points to consider when optimising your images for image search:
Keywords
What will people be searching for? A lot of the time it will be a description of the image. This can vary on the target market. Older searchers will tend to perform image searches with the words “image of” in front on the keyword. If people are looking for artwork they may use the terms “painting/drawing/sketch” before the image. Once you know what keywords you want to be targeting it’s time to move on to….
File names
Search engines can’t read images, they have to do their best to figure out what the image is about with the information they are given. By using a keyworded filename instead of a generic”img23.jpg” you can help give the search engines that little bit more information.
Alt text
Less weight is given to these due to the amount of manipulation they went through in the past. Use the alt text to provide an exact description of what the image is. It can’t hurt and I would imagine it carries a lot more weight in the image search algorithm than the natural search algorithm.
Surrounding text
When analysing an image the search engines will also look at the text directly surrounding the image. Place a caption below it to describe the image for users and the search engines and help boost the images relevancy.
On topic page
Fairly obvious, but an image will do a lot better if it on a page that is relevant to the keyword you are trying to optimise for. It makes sense.
Applying these steps should help get your images some exposure in the image search. It’s worth tracking how much traffic these images can bring to your website to give you an idea of the return on investment optimising can bring.
Ben Hook is a search engine marketer and owner of Navaro, a UK based search engine marketing company that helps clients to grow by increasing their online visibility.
