Images are often ignored when it comes to SEO, despite the fact that Google has it’s own search domain for images. Paying a little more attention to naming scheme and additional tags can make a big difference in search referred traffic.
Here are some basic tips relating to images in web pages:
- most obvious but often ignored, name the image according to it’s content. Instead of DSC00456.jpg, call it sunset-in-italy.jpg (do not use spaces in names, use dashes instead)
- make use of the “title” attribute, adding meaningful information helps search traffic
- using the “alt” attribute is debated when it comes to SEO, but should be part of any clean web design. Just imagine your image is missing or the path incorrect, the visitor at least knows that there is supposed to be an image containing what’s described in the alt tag.
- placing ample and descriptive text around the image helps search engines index the images
- store them in separate, descriptive folder
- ensure that you’re actually hosting the images, otherwise the search referred traffic will go to the image hosting site
- never use duplicate “alt” and/or “title” tags on two or more images