Optimize Your Images for Google Images

If you properly optimize your images, Google's Image Search can send quite a bit of traffic to your web site. Here are six tips for properly optimizing your images to capitalize on this source of traffic:

1) Be Patient: Although you should start implementing these tips today, it normally takes Google a few months to update their image index. So, just remember that a little effort now will really pay off in the near future.

2) Think about your keywords: Even though some people use the next three steps consistently, Google Images still doesn't send them much traffic. The reason for this is they don't select good keywords. When you're implementing the steps below, make sure you select keywords that someone would actually search for. If you need a little help or inspiration, you can always use a free keyword suggestion tool.

3) Use the ALT tag: Using the ALT tag is a must. You should include your main keyword in the ALT tag, but you can add an extra word or two to make it more descriptive (this can help you pickup extra traffic from long-tail searches). For example, if you post a picture of you and your friends trying to catch some fish at the lake, your ALT tag could be "Lake Fishing."

4) Name your File: Many people don't take the time to name their picture files and leave them with default names like "APU473.JPG." As you can see, this tells Google nothing about what your picture is. Using the example above, you could change from this useless default name to "lake.jpg."

5) Put your Keyword by the Image: Having your desired keyword appear on your blog or web site close to the image can help your image rank well. To finish off the lake image example, you would want to write something like "Me and my buddies trying our hand at fishing at the lake:" and place the image directly after this sentence.

6) Get Rid of that Ugly Frame: Several bloggers have shared a snippet of code that will get rid of the frame Google Images puts around your page when a user clicks your thumbnail in their results:


Many people have reported that this trick has increased the conversions from their Google Images traffic, while others have reported that their Images traffic greatly dropped off until they removed the code, so make sure you monitor your results if you decide to implement this trick.