Loading ...Image searches are often carried out by search engine users and can direct a lot of traffic to websites. Images are therefore regarded as an important part of a website and also an important factor in search engine optimisation. The major search engines now also feature image search results in the standard search results offered to searchers so images are having an even greater influence over ranking. Ensuring that the images on your website are optimised appropriately can make a big difference to the results you will see in your search engine optimisation campaign. There are a few simple things to remember and do when optimising the images on your website.
Helping the search engines understand what the picture about is a key point. If a search engine is going to recognise an image as relevant when a search term is entered, it first has to understand the content of the image. A way to help search engines identify and classify images is by including keywords related to the image in the file name.
The text that is near to the image also plays an important role in helping the search engines to understand the content. Include keywords and content that is relevant to the image and this will be helpful. This sort of text may also be used by the search engines as a brief description of the image to accompany it in the search results.
The use of HTML ALT tags is also of significance. Again, include relevant details and keywords and try to use expressive words that others with similar images may not have thought of. Explore this and use different variations for different images.
Using your images in places other than just the content of your web pages can also be useful. Research suggests that search engines are more likely to acknowledge images that feature in blogs and articles so be sure to add your images to relevant content in this form too.
Google News is a great way of increasing the exposure of your website and the amount of traffic that visits it. Optimised images can help your pages to be ranked highly in Google News. If an image is embedded near the headline of the page this will increase the likelihood that Google will find and use this image in its news section. It is thought that this is because the location of the image makes it easier for Google to identify matching images and content. This can be an issue for consideration in image search too.
Finally, the quality of the images is of importance. Google is searching for images that are big and that have an appropriate aspect ratio. When these images are reduced in size to feature in the results page they need to retain their quality. Using images that can be reduced successfully will increase the chance of Google using these images.
Images can play a role in search engine optimisation and at SEO Consult, we help our clients to use effective images appropriately in order to attract image searchers and more traffic to their websites. There are some things to consider when using images in SEO and we can help you choose the right images for your website and help you use them efficiently.
Related posts:
- New options in Google image search
- Images displayed determined by predicted number of clicks
- Brand image is a tool to draw clients
- 5 ways to boost linkability
- The importance of Google News in search engine optimization
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