What is the deal with images and SEO?

Lately i have been reading some stuff on how one should title or tag images in blog posts for better SEO, how exactly does this work?

For example, i usually upload my photos (via scribefire, the blog posting tool), and then tag them as what the item is. What should i be doing instead?

 

You should use ALT IMG tags, and use descriptive file names.

 

Tagging them is good. I'll go with 7 keywords max or a good keyphrase and all different words for each.
Also, name your pictures with keywords. For example, let's say you spent your holidays in Paris, and you get a picture of you with the Eiffel Tower. Don't name the picture 'me.jpg' or 'goodtime.jpg'. Instead, you'll get more organic traffic through Google images with name as 'eiffeltower.jpg' or 'paris.jpg'...

 

this is for dcristo:
I'm sorry, i don't follow. Is that a code? I should use the code of alt image before my item description? Could you please provide maybe, an example.

 

<img src="file.jpg" alt="keywords">

 

o.k. i went to my blog and just pulled up a random photo, and this is the code behind it.

< div align="center"><img src="http://keetsa.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/bald-eagle.jpg" />
</div >

how would or should it look with the code you're giving me?

 

< div align="center"><img src="http://keetsa.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/bald-eagle.jpg" alt="my keywords here" />
</div >

 

wow! thank you. i super appreciate it.

 

You may also try this :
Your Keyword : Free Dating

<img src="free_dating.jpg" alt="Free Dating">

 

most 2 important elements is alt tag and file name. and where that image is being served, around what keywords

 

hi

i have suggested u can used ALT IMG tags

 

is it possible to seo for this image to get it closer to page one? or once u set it up you just have to hope? thx

 

Well, since nobody else is going to link to that image of yours, it's unlikely to have it move to page one in SERPs.

The main reason you use ALT for images is to increase the findability of your pages with such images - they'll have additional keywords associated with them.

 

Well-tagged images may also bring traffic from search tools like google image.
A blog of myne gets its traffic only from googgle image search (at least 40 unique visitors per day ).

 

Use Alt tag in your image and give keywords in your tag.

 

use alt and title tags, and good image filenames. definitely.

This will become more important as Google rolls out universal search services, where multimedia results (images, video, etc) are listed alongside results for web pages.

i'm recommending to my clients that all blog posts now include at least one image, with good descriptions.

 

+1 on optimizing image content. It definitely works although the Google Image bot doesn't come by nearly as often as the regular Google bot so it will take longer for image content to get indexed.

Keep in mind that your success with image search will vary by topic. It doesn't do you much good if someone merely comes to your site to see one image and then move on. Your niche will determine how successfully you leverage image search to drive readers INTO your blog. For example, this can work well with photo blogs or, in my case, a guitar blog. Still, traffic is traffic.

Regards,

Robert

 

Naw just rename the image (actual file) to a nice keyword and you'll do fine.

 

Pretty cool!
I've yet to see any traffic from Google Images.

 

On one site in particular i get 1,000s of visitors per day from image search and im starting to get sick of it. Its not the kind of site to capitalize from this traffic, and its not really an image based site.. Just a bunch of descriptive screen shots to accompany articles. All its doing is skewing my stats, so ive just blocked image bot.

But it can be an excellent traffic source if you want to capitalize on it.