How to use images in SEO

It's important to understand that images are a powerful

tool to boost your search-engine optimization, or

"SEO," strategy in four important ways:

1. People can find your images quickly in a Google

image search. In fact, the Search Engine Journal

reported that twice as many people scroll down through

Google image-search results than a standard search-

results page.

2. Your images can appear next to your website listing

on a Google search-results page to attract more traffic.

3. People love sharing images on social-media

channels.

4. Well-published images on your website can earn you

higher rankings in search results.

Every good car dealer knows that car shoppers

practically never click on car listings that don't have

photos, but the way that you display your images on the

website determines how many people can find that

image. Here's how to make your images attract more

online attention:

Use the right photos.

Attract the right kind of Internet traffic by using

photos that express and match your content's message.

Then, use only high-quality images to make the right

impression. As social-media marketing specialist Mr.

Bullas notes, 67 percent of all customers commented

that the quality of a product photograph was a key

factor for them in choosing which product to buy;

plus, his survey showed that clients thought a

product's image quality matters more than long

descriptions or reviews.

When selecting photographs for your website, you

need them to load quickly and easily across many

different channels. Therefore, adjust them to a size

between 320 to 1300 pixels with a common ratio

format of anywhere between 4 to 3 and 16 to 10. Feel

free to add a watermark or copyright notice to show

that you have the original rights to the photo if anyone

tries to copy it later. Use an image compression of

between 60 to 80 percent of the image's original size,

so the total size should remain less than 400 kilobytes

-- ideally in a JPEG format.

Follow Google's guidelines to help your website

listing appear with an image in the search results.

Google's official image-publishing guidelines

recommend that you include highly descriptive text

and key words for each picture in the image's "alt" tag

and in the image's caption that appears immediately

below it. The words you use in these places tells

Google what the photograph is about and which

searches it relates to.

You can also alert your website developer about using

Google image extensions on sitemaps, which are your

website's collection of all page listings. These added

extensions help search engines like Google locate

pictures that they wouldn't normally find. These

image extensions give search engines additional

information about your pictures and let you select

specific images that you'd like for Google to index.

Some website developers create a separate sitemap to

record all of their images, and others simply integrate

more image data into their existing sitemap.

While sometimes you may see others doing this, Google

advises not to embed text like your page headings or

menu items with important keywords into your images.

Keeping your key text content in HTML format makes

it more accessible to search engines.

Make sure that your images' file names include some

highly specific and detailed information about your

pictures and overall website. Google uses image file

names to collect information about your website, and if

Google Web crawlers can't find enough information on

the page where you host your image, then Google will

sometimes even display the file name on the search-

results page. It's a good idea to keep the file name

around six words long. Try to make the file name's text

show up as a keyword in your web-page content before

and after the picture.

Don't forget to make sure that the anchor text of your

links accurately describes the final destination of its

link. Furthermore, links to your images should contain

lots of helpful information in the anchor text like

"post-2000 model Ford Mustang convertibles," for

example.

Finally, don't miss these extra SEO fundamentals.

Make sure that your page has quality internal links

and external links leading to it that will help Google

crawlers find you.

Search Engine Journal also recommends one last trick

to make key images highly shareable with social

media: Add an image tag in your code. It should

resemble this example:

<meta property="og:image"

content="http://example.com/link-to-image.jpg">

That tag ensures that Facebook, Pinterest and other

shares will include your image.

After you've followed all these steps, keep in mind that

you'll still need to wait for a while to allow some time

for Google to index your website and pick up your new

changes. Over time, you'll experience the benefits of

image-based SEO for yourself.

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