Image Optimization – How to optimize your images for the search engines


horse pictures

Did you know that your web site images get indexed and ranked by the search engines?

If you correctly optimize the images on your web site they can achieve high rankings. For example if you enter “horse” in the Google search box you’ll see several horse images for the top results. When you click on any of these images it will take you to their respective web sites. Image optimization gives you a leg up on your competitors who may not have implemented this strategy.

How to optimize your web site images?

1. Optimize the file name

Use the keyword that describes the image in your file name. Instead of naming your horse image “image1” name it “horse.jpg”

2. Optimize your description

Search engines only read text therefore include your main keywords in the image description (alt tag). Make sure it clearly describes your image (and not something else). False use of this tag may alert the search engines you’re trying to trick them.


<img src="horse.jpg" alt="horse picture">

3. Optimize the image title tag

Example


<img src="horse.jpg" alt="horse picture" title="horse">

4. Optimize your content

The web copy surrounding your image also affects the position of your image in Google’s image search. So you would place the horse image within the copy containing horse content.

5. Include the width and height attributes

Larger images tend to do better than small images so include width and height dimensions to show search engines the size of the image.


<img src="horse.jpg" alt="horse picture" title="horse" width="640" height="480">

6. Optimize the web page

If you optimize your web page for a specific keyword it will do better in the search engines than a page that doesn’t have that focus. Using too many keywords in your web copy will dilute the ranking power for each keyword.

7. Use high quality images

If your image gets listed at the top of the first page it should be crisp and clear so visitors will want to click it to view the image on your web site.

Go through the images on your web site to make sure they are correctly optimized. It may give a boost to your current search engines rankings.

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