Outside of conventional, onsite and offsite SEO, many developers and marketers fail to realize the importance of search engine optimization for photos. Gaining traffic and business from image optimization helps tremendously, especially given the small amount of work involved.
When optimizing images for search engines, the most important thing is the name of the image itself. Most photos are simply labeled “DSC0097.jpg” or something along those lines. The goal is to very briefly summarize the image in the name. Let’s say an image pictures a boy building a sandcastle at the beach. As an internet marketer, I would label the image boy-build-sandcastle-beach.jpg. When combined with on-site content that’s relevant to a boy building a sandcastle at the beach the image will rank very high in photo search engines such as Google Images.
Secondly, the size of the image itself should be addressed. Large, uncompressed photos will hog bandwidth and are not SEO-friendly. Trimming down the size of photos while maintaining original quality is key. The last thing you want is pixelated, ugly photos. This is a big turnoff. Be sure to decrease image size (optimize photos) without compromising quality. Photoshop and many other editing programs can assist with this.
Thirdly, image size greatly impacts exposure. Large images are displayed less frequently, so adhering to standard sizes will induce exposure. I, personally, suggest using images that are under 1000×1000. This not only helps with SEO, but also prevents photos from being snagged and used on another site.
I hope this information has been helpful and good luck with your photo SEO!
Sincerely,
Aaron Schoenberger
The Brainchild Group
The Brainchild Group is a professional internet marketing and website design company located in Los Angeles, California. Our specialties include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Flash Website Design, Viral Videos, Banner Advertisements and a host of other internet marketing mediums.
Servicing: Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Houston, Denver, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Maine, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Munich, Spain and other cities/countries across the globe.