Image SEO – 14 Point SEO Plan for Getting Your Images on Page One of Google

Image SEO should be an integral part of your broader SEO plan because it may represent your shortest and surest route to a page one ranking on Google not only for Google’s Image Search Results – which may or may not be helpful to you, depending on the business you’re in – but also, more broadly,  for Google’s traditional Web Search Results if Google’s search algorithm “decides” that the image you’ve optimized is more relevant to the searcher’s keyword query than other types of search results.

So even if you’re not in the type of a business where you generate revenue from images (photography, for instance) you may be able to drive targeted traffic to your website if the image you’ve “SEO-ed” suggests to searchers that clicking will lead them to content they would be interested in.

Following are 14 image seo tips that may help you grab a page one listing on Google and that should, therefore, be an integral part of your overall SEO plan:

1. It almost goes without saying that image you’re trying to optimize for the search engines should, obviously, be an image that illustrates the keywords you are targeting – for instance, suppose you are a Vancouver-based realtor who specializes in the sale of condominiums and have decided that the best way for you to get a top ranking on Google for the keywords condos for sale in vancouver is through image SEO
2. The focus of the page should be on content related specifically to the image – i.e., if the image you’re “SEO-ing” is a picture of a condo for sale in Vancouver, then written and graphical elements of the page should focus on condos for sale in Vancouver
3. The image should, ideally, be original and of high-quality – i.e., originality is good for ranking and high-quality is good for getting clicks
4. Larger images “perform” better than smaller images, so aim for images no smaller than 250 x 300 pixels
5. The image file type should be either .png, .jpg, or .gif – some people say that .png files “perform” better
6. The image file name should contain the keywords you’re targeting – or a slight variation of the keywords you’re targeting* – and, logically, describe the image – e.g. http://www.yourdomainname.com/images/condos-for-sale-vancouver.png
7. The “alt” text in the source code should contain the keywords you’re targeting – or a slight variation of the keywords you’re targeting – and, logically, describe the image – e.g. <img src=”http://www.yourdomainname.com/images/vancouver-condos-for-sale.png” alt=”Vancouver Condos for Sale” /> (see the video below featuring Google’s Matt Cutts talking about the importance and benefits of “alt” text)
8. The page’s url should contain the keywords you’re targeting – or a slight variation of the keywords you’re targeting – and, logically, describe the image – e.g., http://www.yourdomainname.com/condos-for-sale-in-vancouver
9. The page’s title (this is what appears as the headline of your listing in the search engine results page and displays in the uppermost portion of the page) should contain the keywords you’re targeting – or a slight variation of the keywords you’re targeting – and, logically, describe the image – e.g., Condos for Sale in Vancouver
10. The page’s headlines (appearing in the source code as H1, H2, H3, etc should contain the keywords you’re targeting – or a slight variation of the keywords you’re targeting – and, logically, describe the image
11. The content that follows the headline should, naturally, be “on-topic” – that is, if you’re trying to “SEO” an image of condos for sale in Vancouver then the content should be about condos for sale in Vancouver
12. The image caption should contain the keywords you’re targeting – or a slight variation of the keywords you’re targeting – and, logically, describe the image – e.g., Condos for Sale in Vancouver
13. Build backlinks to your site by posting images on various social media sites, with particular emphasis on photo-sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa (Google’s photo-sharing site) – remember to make sure that wherever you’re linking to the page with the image you’re “seo-ing” that the anchor-text contains the keywords you’re targeting
14. Encourage comments on the page on which the image appears – Google (and other search engines) “like” fresh content and recent activity

Image SEO is no different than web SEO, video SEO, news SEO, or any other form of SEO in that it should be an integral part of your overall SEO plan because it can help you gain a page one ranking on Google, drive qualified traffic to your website, and get the conversions you need to put money in the bank.

Please make sure you add your comments, tell us about your image SEO experiences, and share this post with others.

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* Keyword variations – e.g., Vancouver condos for sale, condominiums for sale in Vancouver, affordable condos available for sale in Vancouver, etc – are useful because they help you get around the issue of “keyword stuffing” that can result in penalization by search engines (and since search engine’s algorithms are eerily human in their ability to intuit meaning, they can interpret a keyword variant as relevant to a searcher’s keyword query).

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