SEO for Images

Most websites use images to make the page have a more visually appealing look or to explain somthing to the site’s vistor. Here is an example of the latter, it can be some kind of map or a photo of the owner of the site, it is more easily to explain somthing to the visitor than using text.

Search engines can’t “read” images at the moment. It is not true in SEO-land that “An image is worth a thousand words”.

One of the most commonly known Search Engine Optimization tips(seo tips) that go around has to do with the way you name and tag the images that you use on your site. Its fairly commonly accepted by most SEO experts that Google not only looks at the text on your blog in order to measure its worth but that Google’s spidering bots also take a look at the code you use in your image files.

You don’t need to stop using images on your sites. Use them where needed, but keep in mind the consequences of using those images. They normally hide content which is available for your users from search engines.

To overcome this problem, the easiest way is to use the alt-attribute of your image. You can use “labrador dog” in the alt text if the image is about your labrador dog. This will also help search engines find your image when people are doing an image search.

Please remember not to make the alt text “link to my labrador dog” if the image is also a link, as the < a > tag will have made that clear. It is still legitimate to use keywords in your image tags and I would recommend that you do, but you should not ’stuffed’ alt tags with all kinds of keywords.

Using alt tags this way also helps vision-impaired people. As they can’t see the page, just like search engines, they have to rely on the text that’s on your page. For many sites, it wouldn’t hurt to think more about this.

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