Popular Wealth

No, this isn’t another ALT TAG guide. If it was it would read like this…

#1 – Use proper alt tags with every image.

#2 – Rename your images using short descriptive titles.

#3 – Optimize image filesize using the “save for web” photoshop feature.

But you’re already doing that (right?), this article is your beginners guide to actually increase blog traffic figures using some extremely simple SEO techniques that dig a little deeper than the three examples above, which you’re using right?

Over the past three months I’ve been experimenting with one of my hobby sites and getting outstanding results in the order of an extra 10% in daily visitors from image search primarily thanks to Google.

1. An introduction to the Google Image Labeler program.

The Google Image Labeler is comparable to a mini game. If you haven’t tried it yet head on over and give it a shot. You’ll be paired with another random person and you’ll both be shown various images from around the internet. The goal is to enter text that best describes the image as quickly as possible. When the two players descriptions match points are awarded and the next image is shown.

Google retains this data and uses it to enhance the image search results of their search engine, it’s rather ingenious. It also means that the images you place on your site had better use descriptive text that people would actually use to find it.

2. Image search, an independent search engine.

The image search feature of popular search engines attempts to show you the most relevant Blog images much like their site search feature attempts to bring you the most relevant websites. Although search engines don’t disclose their algorithms it is known that the two types of search operate independently of each other. What that means to you is that if your web page ranks well it doesn’t necessarily mean that the images on the same page will rank well.

What makes an image rank well? Good question. Besides all of the best practice examples I’ve already mentioned another factor seems to be image size. I’m getting the best results with images that are between 400 and 600 pixels wide, of good resolution, and relatively square in shape although squareness isn’t critical. Providing the image dimensions (height and width) within the image tag itself seems to help as well. Given that Google creates a thumbnail of your images to display on the search page it makes sense that images with the same width to height ratio as the thumbnails lend themselves better to making attractive thumbnail images.

3. Webmaster tools -bringing it all together.

Visit Google Webmaster Central and visit the section titled “Improve traffic with Google Webmaster Tools”. If you don’t have a free Google account yet you’ll be prompted to sign up, if you do have an account already go directly to the “Tools” section of your control panel and visit the section titled “Enable enhanced image search”. All you need to do here is click on the radio button to “opt in” and Google may begin using your images in the image labeler program and enhance their chances of being properly indexed.

Google has also patented an image recognition application that will be able to read text from your images in the near future, consider adding a description of the image right onto the image itself to see what happens later on. Yahoo!, not to be outdone, has recently begun showing “related images” at the bottom of every search results page too, take a look.

Image search is quickly heating up as a viable, and SEO targetable, search feature. When search engines give you tools (and force) like this, use it!