how do I optimize for site w/MANY images & very little text

I have a site that my client wanted designed a particular way. There is very little text throughout the site. I do have an about us page and a press page that I can optomize

My focus now is on the other pages.

- unfortunately, the home page is nothing but images.
- there are several product pages that have images of picture frames with these type of minor descriptions: SIGNATURE STRIPES, Blue & Green - 462bg, Apple Green Writing .

What is the best way to optimize these types of pages. i.e. pages with virtually nothing but images. Should I simply add information to the alt atgs? if so can I add a sentence or two to the tags. I do not want to stuff the tags just key words. I definately want to keep everything on the up-and-up.

By the way, I am fairly new to SEO if you could not tell. My web design business (and hopefully soon my SEO business) relies heavely on word of mouth so I do not want to get someone banned right out of the gate.

Any thoughts would be apprecieated!

 

Do these:
1. Give your image filenames with 2 or 3 keywords.
2. Use ALT tags to assign more keywords to each image.
3. If image is a link to another, add TITLE element to A HREF, with more keywords.
4. Add Meta Description and Keywords to your Header.
5. Add links to other related websites, using keywords in your anchors and TITLEs (this includes internal links too).
6. Add a caption to each image.
7. Make sure that your pages have keywords in filenames and titles.

Don't do these:
1. Don't stuff or spam with keywords - go for natural sentences.
2. Don't give up!

Umm... that's all I can think of for now. Good luck!

Cryo.

 

I'd talk with your client and inform them that you NEED to have some content on the page. Remember, you're the "expert" in there eyes, so you need to recommend the plan of action...which is adding content to the page(s).

Obviously, having an all-image homepage is a definite no-no, so you really need to stress the importance of keywords, not only in the Title, but also throughout the body of a page.

They need to be aware that you won't be able to effectively SEO their site without proper keyword placement throughout each page.

With the product pages, you just gotta run with it. Your client should come up with the content for the pages, so you need to tell them you need 2-3 paragraphs of content per product page.

 

How's the site navigatoin? Start there.

Have a highly visible menu on the top or one of the sides. Each menu item be a keyword like "Large Frames", "Oak Frames", "Picture Frames", etc. Explain to your client that this is for visibility for both the search engines and for your users. A site high in usability is most likely highly optimized too.

Then redo the footer. Have a link to your homepage, sitemap, TOS, and privacy policy. You can also have a "sales and discounts" link to individual products or categories that you change on occassions (just ideas).

For images, follow the above. Use alt-tags on almost every image, describing the product or image. Don't use simple Alt-tags like "Frame", use descriptive ones like "Large 48x36 Black Oak Frame with white matte and glass plating. Ideal for family portraits and nature photography. Glass can be removed from the frame and used for canvas paintings." Obviously I don't know much about frames, but I hope you get the idea. For logos and buttons you can use much more simple alt tags: "Back to mattes", "[Company Name] Logo", "Buy Oak Frame Now", etc.

Next thing I'd do is focus on a sitemap. Generate a .txt or XML sitemap that is compliance with Google Sitemap and Yahoo's (can't remember what they call it) standards and submit to each. Then create an HTML duplicate of that sitemap and host it on your site at domain.com/sitemap.html (or .php or .asp, etc). Make sure you link to the sitemap from the homepage, or as stated above, sitewide in the footer. Make that sitemap a STRONG page by pointing some external links at it too.

Had some more ideas but drawing blanks now. Hope this helps.

 

If I were you, I'd buy an SEO course and educate myself thoroughly on the subject; then if and when you have any followup questions, bring 'em to the forums. Doing so will save you a lot of lost time.

 

I just did a quick search for "SEO course " and found more than enough. Any suggestions you may have for a good one would be great.

Boy, I am loving this forum. I'm only two days old here but have found so far that you all are full of great tips, ideas and just plain ol' help...Thanks!

 

Aaron Wall, an industry leader, put together a great book for starters as well. It costs $79 (last I checked) and will pay for itself over and over again. You also get free updates forever, which is a major plus in this industry. Here's the link: SeoBook.com

 

Let's see, hmmm, a good SEO course? Yeah there are plenty of those around; but hey, why settle for anything less than great? If you love this forum, you'll also love my SEO course! (of course) They fit together like bread & butter.

 

[Cryogenius'] list is good for onpage optimization but this is half the story.

You need to get quality (PR3 or higher) backlinks to the page as well. When getting backlinks try to use the primary keyword in the URL description instead of the site name. Hard to do since most people are so proud of their site name but it is a better working link.

Also, remember that the homepage isn't necessarily the page that must be optimized. Do a search on Google for a term and you will see that a number of the results on the first page or for pages within a site and not just the homepage of the domain. Hope this helps.

 

Dude...you've been pushing that course a little too much on this forum. People see it in your sig...don't worry.

 

Actually, when I asked for course suggestions on I didn't even notice
SEO Tutor©'s signature .

Wholy moley...I also just noticed I'm a "Peon"......

 

beat this www.ccaus.com

everything is image..i gave up on it already

 

Please don't concern yourself - I think there's more important things for you to focus on.

 

1. You can try using layers and putting copy behind the graphics. (you didn't hear this from me) I don't believe this is techically "black hat" yet since flash based websites have to use this to get their content recognized by spiders.

2. Also the page title could have more keywords than just the company name and I would rename all of the graphics to keyword related names and add ALT tags with keywords as well. These are usually standard for most sites but because of the lack of other content it may be seen as "keyword stuffing" on this site.

3. You need to distribute either a press release(prweb.com) or setup an RSS feed or make some posts in Blogs on blogger.com to get the site indexed. These will get the site indexed regardless of content.

Good luck

 

WHOA! Staw away from Z-layers! If you were ever hand-reviewed by a G engineer (and if you ever get good search engine ranking for popular keywords you will be), they'd see this and give you penalties without question. It's best to use img ALT tags and href TITLE tags if you must use have copy with your images.

 

Not really...I outsource most stuff.