Ever see images on Google or Bing and wonder how these search engines pick which to show?
Before I continue on the components that help images be found on Google (or other search engines), do not delude yourself with personal search results. Those results are skewed. I wrote a whole post on it here. Images only show when they might help the query.
When it comes to getting your pictures to show up on search engines, there are three areas to focus on.
- image filename
- alt tag
- supporting text
Image Filename
Remember that Google and other search engines are just computers. They cannot tell what a photo is about, so you have to sort of give them hints.
The very first thing is making filenames searchable. Whatever your target keyword is, insert it as part of the filename separated by dashes. For example, “valentine-card-template.jpg” might be one.
Alt Tag
The next step is to add an alt tag. An alt tag is short for alternative tag.
Ever get an email that contains images? Gmail, for example, has a button that says show all images. Well, an alt tag shows up in its place before the photo is revealed. Its purpose is to tell you what the image is about and to define itself to search engines.
So whenever you upload a photo, insert alt tags.
If you’re not using WordPress or another convenient CMS (content management system like Blogger), you can add the codes by hand.
<img alt=”insert target keyword here” src=”https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1250437/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/image-alt-tag.png” />
You can check a photo’s alt tag by hovering over the image. A little tag will pop up momentarily.
Supporting Text
Lastly, a photo does well with supporting text. You could do the above steps and be done with it, which is most convenient for photographers. However, if you want to rank well, you have to write.
Text before and after the photo is ideal. This is why the caption feature is very handy.
Other Considerations
Let’s recap. If you have a photo of syrah wine, these are the things you need to do:
- Name the photo syrah-wine.jpg
- Add an alt tag “syrah wine”
- Surround the photo with text about syrah wine
Now, what happens if the tens of thousands of readers on my blog all apply this new knowledge that you just acquired? Well, then it becomes a battle of PageRank and a number of other factors all of which I elaborate extensively in my SEO e-book. Details below.
Don’t underestimate image search. People are becoming more visual-centric. Why do you think Pinterest is so popular?
Kind Words
In 2009, I hosted a nationwide workshop tour for SEO strategies. Since then, search engines have made many updates of which I included in an e-book; coupled with more advanced strategies. Here is a testimonial from my 2009 workshop.
Cheers,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. Last week, I wrote about SEO Basics. And Alicia Candelora left me some kind words š
Other SEO articles:
- Why SEO is Important to Photographers and How You Can Get Started
- Think You Know Where You Rank on Search Engines? Think Again.
- How to Get Your Images to Show Up on Google
- The Most Common Mistake of SEO
- Not All Links Are Created Equal
- 7 Steps to Calculate the Effectiveness of Your Website
Learn how I got into SEO. It starts with a story of how I shot cats and then weddings.
Oh the memories … š
Chapter 1: From Cats to Weddings
Chapter 2: Riding High On Referrals
Chapter 3: TheKnot Frenzy
Chapter 4: Searching For Myself
SEO Book – Found
SEO E-Book for Modern Photographers
Industry’s most advanced and comprehensive 126-pages of successfully proven strategies —
[price-item item_number=”2″ category=”seo ebook”]
Great tips, Lawrence. I am still amazed how often the alt tag step is skipped or forgotten. It is such an important part of SEO, let alone for internet users with disabilities.
With the new Google Knowledge Graph showing images in a slider at the top, it is just showing how important it is to get your images to show up in those result, especially with your tips. Thanks again.
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Thanks for another GREAT tip! I was wondering if you can share your knowledge on HOW to create the email you send out. One that is fun, inviting, colorful, and professional looking. Or a site I can go to learn? Thanks so much!!
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Hey Chris,
I’ll keep that in mind š When I have a chance, I’ll write something and maybe even code a template to download.
Cheers,
Lawrence
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THANKS!!
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Thanks so much for sharing so much with all of us! We recently launched a brand new website and are trying to learn as much as we can about SEO. For the image filename, we were wondering if it matters if you use dashes or underscores between words?
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Congratulations on your new site!
From my experience, they don’t matter. In fact, Google is smart enough to evenunderstandwordsthatarejumbledtogether, but I still believe in making it more legible. š
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Nice one! Looking forward to the book – eBook or paperback?
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Cool! This one will be an e-book. Thanks, Cormac!
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Thanks for the advice! We’re starting up our wedding blog and all this seo stuff is super helpful. Do you think that having each image ‘pinnable’ to Pinterest is helpful? Or just having the entire blog post pinnable enough?
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That’s a UX (user experience) question; does not affect SEO.
Personally, I think a single PinIt button is helpful if your pages don’t have many photos. Otherwise, it’s a hunt / search game. To me, it’s easier if the PinIt buttons are right under the specific photos I want pinned.
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Tiny correction…
The “tool tip” that appears momentarily when you hover over an image is populated by the content of the “TITLE” attribute within the IMG tag NOT the “ALT” attribute (with the exception of IE 6-8 which do NOT follow HTML standards properly).
Using a “TITLE” attribute (in addition to the “ALT” attribute) within your IMG tags is good practice and can give the site visitor a bit more context and feedback, but does not affect search engine ranking.
But the “ALT” tag definitely does. Good advice. Thanks for sharing.
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Learned this a long time ago by you. Thank you for the knowledge!
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Happy to hear that you’re rocking the photo search, Paul! Keep it up š
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That’s very helpful info and hope it will help me to boost my ranking š Many Thanks for sharing
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I just finished reading your e-book FOUND. I have to say, it was everything that I hoped it would be. I couldn’t wait to finish so that I could start optimizing! Thanks so much for all this valuable information.
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So happy that you loved it, Giganni! Please let me know how it goes! xo
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So would you say to strongly fill in the caption box when uploading a photo? I title the photo relevant to the keyword, then do the same for the alt tag but leave the caption empty….
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How important is it for search for each image to have its own URL? For each image I can choose to have the image link nowhere, or to a custom URL, or to the URL generated when I upload the image to WordPress.
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Not very important. The most important aspects are filename and image alt tag.
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Thanks so much!
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You’re welcome, Amy!
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Thanks for the tip! I have a question for you. Many of my pages rank high but images do not despite having alt tags and proper description. What could be the reason?
If I update my old pics to add better desc, will it affect their ranking now?
Thanks in advance!
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It could be the filenames. Those matter a lot.
If you update old posts, the ranking will change.
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