“Content is King” has long been the catch phrase of Web Marketers & Search Engine Optimization gurus
BUT
Content is not restricted to text.
Google is getting a lot smarter when trawling the net & its catch includes images & videos AND their accompanying titles & meta tags.
For instance … Google ‘Picket Fence’
Along with the paid results which tend to be on top & the map (again paid results) there are a row of images featured.
If you’re shopping for fence ideas, which are you more likely to click on?
Researchers have found that shoppers are more motivated by relevant images than even the most compelling text!
So your images play an important part in ranking your site and can help to drag in the buyers.
How?
Lets start with the obvious.
Name your images descriptively – DSC00031.jpg will do nothing to assist with your page rank.
White_Picket_Fence.jpg may help.
You MUST use the ‘alt’ meta tags with your image – originally designed to provide information to people browsing without images, they now feed Search Engines relevant information on what your image depicts. Your HTML source may look something like:
<img src="your_descriptive_image_name" alt="Your Keyword Optimized description">
As always – don’t spam your keywords and keep the description short … about 125 characters is ideal.