Come my friend let’s sit awhile
We’ll share a joke; We’ll share a smile
And before our visit is marked through
We’ll share what’s new with me; what’s new with you.
Pictures Are Not Only Worth 1000 Words, They’re Worth SEO!
Posted By ê¿ê on November 12th, 2008
Gosh don’t we all love to see pictures in posts? They really can juice up one, can’t they?
Pictures are pretty powerful draws to your readers. They not only illustrate what you’re writing about, they can entertain, enlighten, awe, inspire and drive SEO to your post.
“What’s that you say? A picture can give bring me Search Engine Optimization?” Yes, it can. Now I hope you’re saying “Tell me more!” (cause I’m gonna whether you said it or not 
)
Ok, let’s say you’ve written this absolutely riveting review of Quantum of Solace sort of like Ken Armstrong did. You’ve found this stunning picture on the web and you’re going to use it in your post to illustrate what a fab film this is. It’s a publicly distributed image, so you’re allowed to use it.
So you go to your handy dandy image upload icon and find your image, but wait just a minute before you click the “Insert into Post” button if you will. Do you see the field called “Title”? Type in a good title here. It needs to be as good as the title to your post is (something I’m notoriously bad at accomplishing, so you’re on your own as to how to write good titles). You can also write something in the Caption area — I usually don’t because I don’t particularly care for how WordPress handles captions, but it won’t hurt anything if you do. Then, see that box called “Description”? Type in some of your better keywords in there. Ok — that’s good — choose the alignment and size and NOW click the “Insert into Post” button.
Great! Now you have an awesome photo on your post that’s doing a bit of extra work because you’ve included those keywords in the description and given it a meaningful title. You can even see your handiwork by hovering your mouse over the image, but even better they are where they will be read by the bots that scope out your site every time you update it. Ok, so it took you a bit of mental exercise to think up a fantastic title and 30 seconds to type in the keywords in the description area, but it’s going to be so worth it! I promise!
But you say “I’m not using WordPress, so how do I, a lowly non-WordPress blog platform user accomplish the same thing?”
Well, it’s a bit more typing for you, but just as easily accomplished, I promise.
If your blog platform allows you to view the HTML of your page, you’re going to want to edit that. You will add the title element to your image’s HTML along with the alt tag. Don’t forget your size elements (to help with your page load) and then you’re done!
<title="Pictures are worth SEO" src="http://eyespi20.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/qos3.jpg"
alt="A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words As Well As SEO" width="500" height="398" />
There is a plug-in called SEO Friendly Images (which I actually have installed, but not configured) that’s supposed to make this a bit less painful, but from what I’m seeing in the configuration instructions, it just pulls in your post title and adds that to the file name of the picture. In my opinion, that’s not going to get the same action as my instructions above will from the bots. For one thing, your file name has to be something and I don’t know about you, but I tend to name mine stuff that really only means something to me. Like the screen shot above is named QOS3.jpg — what’s that going to mean to a bot even coupled with my post title? It’s the equivalent of making las vegas hotel reservations through Priceline as opposed to making them through the hotel’s reservations number. It’s a bit more work to go through Priceline, but you get more bang for your $$, right?
Ok — now go forth and optimize!
ê¿ê
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Tags: SEO, Web search engine
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Comments 17
Okay, now you know why I have images in almost all of my posts.
Deimos Tel`Arin´s last blog post..SeppuKuties – Download
@Deimos — Ain’t it great???!!??
Hrmm, I never really even thought about title tags for images. Thanks for the suggestion.
Jim´s last blog post..G-spot Vibrator – Playful Curve Massager Swirl
It’s good that WordPress 2.7 now automatically use your image title as the Alt attribute text as well. Previously, it’s empty and you have to fill it in manually! (or I think it would use the caption as the ALT)
Michael Aulia´s last blog post..Is my blog cool?
i am guilty on this..in some reason i guess.. more often of my post i add pix. it didn’t came to my mind of others eyes but just my own eyes delight to see than a bare txt. while i was reading my mind was asking: “I’m not using WordPress, so how do I, a lowly non-WordPress blog platform user accomplish the same thing?” and was answered!:)
Happy Thrusday margaret!:)
fit4all´s last blog post..My Rhum Honey Favorite
You have raised an interesting point here. I do not know much about SEO but if you want your XHTML to validate you have to include the ‘alt’ attribute within your ‘img’ tags. If you include a ‘title’ attribute along with the ‘alt’ attribute the code will also validate. Within Wordpress both the ‘alt’ and the ‘title’ attributes default to the wording you enter in the ‘title’ field. If you leave the ‘title’ field blank WP will add an empty ‘alt’ attribute.
There appears to be many different viewpoints as to just where the ‘title’ attribute is to be used. When it is used inside a link, it is the source of the tooltip text (IE works slightly different here). I normally use the alt inside the ‘img’ tag and the title attribute in the ‘a’ tag used for a link.
Which one of these two is actually read by the bots I do not know. Hopefully they read both.
Lyndi´s last blog post..Showing your number of Twitter followers
Very well put! Thank you for writing on this, I never know exactly what the perfect way to set up the photos on my site. I’ve been ignoring the “description” area. Duh. Thanks for writing on this!
Monica´s last blog post..Sanctuary – Almost Done
@Jim — you’re welcome!
@Glorie — I really should have tested on Blogger to see how exactly it handles images. It’s been so long since I wrote a post on a blogger blog that I can’t remember.
@Michael — for the same reason that I’m not totally impressed with the SEO Images plugin, this generic solution on WordPress’ part has me less than impressed. I see lots of file names that don’t relate at all to keywords, SEO or even what the picture is actually about, so just defaulting to that is, well, wimpy.
@Lyndi –Not being a bot and also not working for Google, I can’t attest that they *do* actually use those in their algorithms but by putting them there, you have them at the ready just in case they do (and I suspect they DO especially if that image is linked).
@Monica — Although I mentioned putting a description in, looking at my source code, I don’t actually see that anywhere, so I am not going to guarantee that it’s useful. Definitely use the title and alt fields, though.
[...] Pictures Are Not Only Worth 1000 Words, They’re Worth SEO! [...]
Thanks for this great info, I didnt know that we had to put it in the description tag.
If it helps in SEO, I would love to do it
hehehe I have images in almost all of my posts because its pretty. But I usually need to make the title of the image something memorable or my poor widdle bwain won’t remember… also, I like to give people a bit of an explanation of the picture via the title tag because it might not always go with the content of the post.
Great tip Marge (is that ok?)
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I have been guilty of not using many images at all, because of the whole “original content” demands of my ad company.
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@Raj — don’t know that it’s a “have to” but it may have some future functionality.
@Reggie — At least you make a title — many people leave it blank!
@witchy — Can’t you use public domain images at all? They sure do spice up a place
ê¿ê
Great ideas! I use TONS of pictures, but never remember to put the text with them
Course I am just a little personal blog, so SEO is not top on my list of needs, but one day maybe 
Spookygirl´s last blog post..My God! It’s full of
After reading your post, I see low traffic to my blogs as the result of my ignorance of search engines work. Thank you for the wonderful post. You showed a way to improve my online art galleries. Though my posts are overwhelmingly my pictures, I used just Insert button for putting them on my blog. Thank you for the awakening. I will edit my posts now.
I hope you will enjoy your visit to my blogs. You are welcomed
@SpookyGirl — glad my article as of some help.
@Thomas — I’m glad my article was of some help. I’m sorry about needing to edit your comment, but 6 links is 6 too many.
ê¿ê
Golly! I missed this one – I must look and see what I can in blogger with this. Going to my QOS Review right now (well… right after I read your newer post)
Thank you, too, for making an example of me – one can pay good money for that kind of service
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I haven’t spent much time with images for SEO in the past. Your article makes sense and using images in this manner should bring in traffic from, Google Image Search as well.
I’ve heard that your URL can have an impact on SEO which is why using your post title in your URL is better than a generic page number. It makes me wonder if the same holds true for image names. Would an image called QuantumSolacePoster.jpg or Quantum-Solace-Poster.jpg rank better for those keywords then QOS.jpg?
I’ve seen title and alt both used in the img tag. It would be interesting to know if they are weighted equally, given double weight if you use both, or if one or the other is ignored. It’s a shame we can’t leap into the brains of those bots (or the programmers who wrote them) to know exactly how they tick.
Another reason to make sure you alt/title your img is because Google’s Image Search can draw you visitors too!
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[...] engine results. Learn, “Just What The Heck Is SEO And Why Do You Want It?“, why “Pictures Are Not Only Worth 1000 Words They’re Worth SEO“, and “One Last Step To Achieve SEO [...]
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my bookmarking. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.