Image SEO Optimization – Improve your search rankings

Image SEO Optimization – Improve your search rankings



People are finding my blog from my images!Yes that’s right. Although my content rocks, and my pages are SEO optimized, a lot of hits are coming from Google Image Search.I knew seo optimization for images was important, but until now I had not taken the time to look into it.So now I have. And you can benefit from all my new-found-wisdom.Below I will fill you in on all the details about optimizing images for SEO.Don’t miss out on easy SEO oppotunities! Your site is full of images.Image SEO Optimization FactorsThe most important parts of Image SEO optimization are the image filename and the alt tag on your page.
As strange as it might seem, the filename plays a role in Image SEO.So please PAY ATTENTION to the following filename pointers!
1.      Don’t  use just one word (or words together) to name your image files
2.      Name/Describe the image well
3.      Uses dashes/hyphens not underscores or pluses, to separate the words in the filename – (more details here from smart people)
A small detail about point 3:  Google sees dashes as word separators, and underscores as joiners so to Google: -·         Mad-Lemmings = Mad Lemmings
·         Mad_Lemmings = MadLemmings
It’s ok if you don’t know what an Alt tag is, let me explain.The alt tag is part of the image HTML tag. Here is an example<img alt=”filing cabinet in row” src=”http://madlemmings.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/filing-cabinets-row.jpg” >
It gives a description of the image to display if the image is not available OR if a text reader is used (like for vision impaired people – images are not shown to them obviously!).But more importantly for the SEO and  images:It is also used by Google to find out what your image is about.So it provides keyword relevance to search, and helps rank your images on search result pages (SERP).So what should we put in the alt tag of an image?·         Limit the text to 150 characters or less (the rest might not be read by the search engines)·         Put keywords more towards the beginning
·         Try to write a relevant description which is also related to the page (if possible)
·         Always use the alt attribute for images you want indexed in search engines (ie. images used in your sites background/construction etc can be ignored)
The following is an Alt tag checker for checking your webpages to ensure you have them.
Feedbot Alt Tag CheckerThis is an other attribute of the Image HTML tag that you can use to provide image information.Most browsers use this instead of the Alt text to display to the user when you put your mouse over an image.According to many gurus like SEO Moz, it has no SEO impact.However, for your user’s sake it is best to have both the alt and title attributes.
The DescriptionSome people have asked about this once I posted this on my blog, so this is what I have found on GoogleThe Description will appear on the Permalink page of the image in the Media Library. See FAQ on WorpdressIf your uploaded image is used in a Gallery, the Description is what will appear on the Attachment page.
So in my opinion, the description field is something you can forget about in most casesWordPress Image SEOIf you use WordPress like me, the following will show you how to fill in the above attributes for your images (alt and title).On the right you will see one of the two places you can fill in the Alt and Title fields in WordPress.
I have highlighted these fields in red, along with the image filename.** Notice the image name has dashes between the words. If yours does not, re-upload it after changing the name. There is no way to do this inside WordPress that I know of.So if you just want to display an image (without Caption) the fields I have filled in (inside the red boxes) are the two you need to take care of each time you use an image to SEO optimize images.Note: I have noticed WordPress often ignores the title text you fill in when you upload the image. You need to edit the image inside you post and add it again for it to be added.
WordPress Plugin for Image SEO OptimizationI don’t use a plugin for editing these attributes of my images because it is so simple to do it yourself (as shown above).However, if you want a little extra help, this plugin is something I have found that might help. Let me know if it’s any good :>Image SEO WordPress PluginOther Image SEO FactorsThis is the text that is used for displaying a link.The same is true when you want to link to an image (because you can link directly to the image’s URL).Linking to images is not done very often, however if you want to reuse an image or create backlinks for image SEO it is worth considering.·         The richer the link anchor text, the better the image will rank in search engines.
·         It is also worth varying it for each link. (ie change the link text)
For those of you who manually create your sitemap xml, this is something to take into considerationSearch engines index your images, so make sure important images are included in your sitemap.You will need to ensure special tags for the images are included in your main sitemap, or you can create a special image sitemap.Here is Google’s answer on image sitemap if you need more help.
For those  of you who have followed Mad Lemmings for a while, this is not a new topic.Page load speed, and image optimizations make a difference to your site’s SEO.Users and Google like pages that load fast.If you are new to this idea, below is some previous posts that will help.Learn about optimizing your images: Speed Up your website with simple Image ImprovementsFind some tools to optimize your images: So you need some tools to work on those imagesFinding free images: Spice up your Website with Free Images Image FilenameThe Alt TagThe TitleAnchor textSitemapPage load speed & SEO Image optimization

20 On-Page SEO Tips & Techniques

There are many on-page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques that we can use for each of our websites, some that often get overlooked. So, here is a checklist of the most important techniques that we can use for 2014.

Editor’s note: Some of these have been around for a while but they are always good as a refresher.

1) Title Tag

The best and most effective way to use the title tag is to not to make the title tag longer than 70 characters. The title should be according to your page; try to use the long phrased keyword within the title tag.

2) Description Tag

Use this tag smartly. Describe your page content and try to use your most competitive keywords in the text. Use no more than 160 characters.

3) Keywords Tag

We all know that Google stated that this tag does not affect your rankings but there are many SEOs, who still use this tag for other search engines. Target your 5 most competitive keywords within the tag.

4) HX  (Heading) Tags

Use HX tags with each of your main article headings / sections. Use h1 for the main headings and the rest in h2, h3, h4 and so on. Try use your keywords in the headings and highlight them in the eye of search engines with these HX tags.

5) Images

Optimizeeach image with ALT and Title tags. Image name can also be optimized; try to use the keywords smartly within the tags as well.

6) Search Engine Friendly URLs

Try not to use signs like &, Spaces, ?, etc in your URLs otherwise it can come across as spammy. Ask your developer to make the URLs look easy to read, short and clean.

7) Quality Content Is King

As we all know “Content is King” in the SEO industry, so we can’t ignore this one. Each page should have a minimum of 500 words of great quality content.

8) Navigation

Make sure your navigation is crawlable, whether it be text or image based.

9) JavaScript/CSS External

Externalize the JS and CSS codes to make your website pages load faster. Take this with a grain of salt as it’s not always the best choice in any case. Sometimes it’s better to use pregressively inline JS and CSS for faster rendering and perceived time.

10) Internal linking

Internal linking will help you to engage your customers within the website. Internal linking will also help you to control the bounce rate as well.

11) External pages

Adding links to external high quality website (not just popular) resources builds a good relation in the eye of search engines and this trust will help the websites to get higher positions on search engines.

12) Geo-tagging

Use geo-tagging to let your users and search engines see your actual business location.

13) Authorship Markups

Use authorship to take the ownership of the content you publish on your website.

14) Sociability

Add social media buttons to encourage your readers to share your website’s content on their profiles. Websites with social signals can get better rankings in search engines.

15) XML SiteMap

Create xml sitemap and add each of your website in it. You can submit to sitemap in Google and Bing webmaster tools to make your website index soon.

16) Robots.txt

Updated: The robots.txt is a text file webmasters create to instruct robots (typically search engine robots) how to crawl and index pages on their website.

17) Analytics

Make sure you have added and setup the analytics code so you can properly analyze your website.

18) Webmaster Tools

Add and verify the ownership of your websites via Google Webmaster Tools. These webmaster tools will also help to analyze the on-page validations.

19) Xenu (Broken Links)

Xenu is free software to find broken links within your web pages. Find and fix those broken links as soon as you find them.

20) Hosting

A website hosting server should be up and running 24/7, with at least 99.9% uptime. A website with too much downtime can be de-indexed from and won’t be able to rank higher on search engines.