Do image links play a role ?

[anjanesh]

Do image links (.jpg, .gif) have a significant role in obtaining backlinks ?
Do Google, MSN, Y! cache them ?

How does google images figure out the keywords associated with the image ?

[promotion]

those are indeed backlinks. But you can't get the benfit of text links (because anchor text hyooerlinking is not there). Google can underdstand it from alt text of that image.

[anjanesh]

What abt these image links in forums ? I have no control over entering the html alt attribute as these are mostly phpBB or vB powered ([img] tags).

[promotion]

no images from forum wouldn't help.

[malc]

Do image links (.jpg, .gif) have a significant role in obtaining backlinks ?
Do Google, MSN, Y! cache them ?

How does google images figure out the keywords associated with the image ?

Images gives you backlinks. The "alt" tags in them are also counted as keywords.
Good images with smart "alts" helps your site. ;)

[anjanesh]

The "alt" tags in them are also counted as keywords - Theres no way to include the alt tags in the [img] tags is there ?

[dcristo]

- Theres no way to include the alt tags in the [img] tags is there ?

Yeah there is.

Example: [img src="header.jpg" alt="keyword"]

[anjanesh]

oh...in that case how come promotion says no images from forum wouldn't help. ?

[dcristo]

oh...in that case how come promotion says no images from forum wouldn't help. ?

I'm referring to ALT IMG text on your website.

[anjanesh]

Ok. So do image backlinks in forums really help ?

Im actually trying to get it listed in google images. Im assuming google will check the ALT keywords in the <img> and [img] tags for image search ?

[dcristo]

Ok. So do image backlinks in forums really help ?

Im actually trying to get it listed in google images. Im assuming google will check the ALT keywords in the <img> and [img] tags for image search ?

Forum links in general offer no real SEO benefit, just direct traffic.