Does the filename of an image have any relevance in the search engines? Does anybody know a good resource that discusses SEO for images?
Vitaminp, 1. Use a descriptive filename 2. Use a descriptive alt tag 3. Use the same alt tag throughout a site
The filename is important. First of all, you may get some pretty good results from Google image search. One of my site gets around 500 users a day from google images :]
For getting your images found in google image search, filenames are essential. For getting the text found on google - I don't think there is too much difference. I really would not use identical alt tags throughout the site: that would be a flag for google to ignore that text. It's as unhelpful as having the same description or title tag on each page. alt text should just describe the image in question - so that that specific image will be found in google image search.
talking about google image search, since google is using our images and display it in a frame. why not brake the frame when someone click your image via image search, here is how using javascript. you can add the code inside the tag of the <heade></header>
I don't want this to look spammy like promoting my own site.. but I made a guide on this: http://www.estebanpanzera.com/image-seo-guide/
Utilize every image and word for search engine promotion. It is sad that many large websites are neglecting to write file name for images.
Many larger websites put a lot more effort on usability and design instead of SEO, which actually makes sense.
thanks for the info this definetley helps, i havent been creating very descriptive filenames at all until recently - hopefully my luck will change not only that i've been forgetting about the title attribute. has anybody found a good way of having automated image galleries indexed well? I have an idea... putting a large list of keywords (about 50) related to a relevant topic into a database (topic of the gallery - in my case specific night clubs and events). as the images are being added to the gallery they are assigned about 5 keywords each in a random order - the keywords can be used in the alt and title attibutes the way i figure is that it is highly unlikely for images to have the same alt tag, and google won't catch onto the fact that them being added was automatic - images wont look the same, so they are all added. has anybody tried anything similar?
Yes, filename and alt tags gives big relevance to the images http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/03/12/formatting-images-for-seo/
yeas, agree with the rest about filename. I got a flash tutorial site which receive decent traffic from google images. I do not use alt tag for my images but with good filename (using - instead of _ and word togethers)
How much alt tag description is too much? The first thing Google sees on my website is my image. By fooling around and testing, I placed my description of my website with my keywords into this tag. The total amout of words is 28 words - again, this sentence describes my site utilizing my keyphrases. When Google reindexed my site, the snippet read exatly the way I wrote it in my alt tag. My question is - Is this wrong? Would Google penalize for this?
I don't get why you would want to get images listed for keywords not even related to the picture. Why would users even click on those pictures, when they show up when they are looking for something else? I'd try just being honest and labeling the images correctly, for what's in them. And yes, you can use a title AND an alt tag. But I do think stuffing both full with keywords will tip off google that there is serious spamming going on. So in practice I'd use one or the other.