I've been including images in my blog posts for quite some time. Most SEO experts have SEO Image Tips on Image Alt Texts but never misses out on Image File Names, Image Titles and Image Location. Why is that?
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| Image with Image Alt Texts with no Image Title |
Alt Image Texts primary purpose us to display textual context when an image cannot be rendered or is not yet displayed. So you should describe what the image is about so readers might be interested in it. Only some web browsers like Internet Explorer shows the Alt text when you hover over the image. Google has confirmed that it mainly focuses on Image Alt Texts. Although Image Alt Texts should have your keyword focused description, it is not a tag so try to limit it and avoid keyword stuffing. Remember that it is only one among many SEO factors. If you think that your readers do not need to read any image description you can place Alt Text="" so the Image File Names will be read instead.
Matt Cutts on importance of Image Alt Texts
How to add Image Alt Texts?
Add Image Alt Texts after the image URL. See example below:
<img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mOM_09UCkw4/Tn70F4q0dvI/AAAAAAAAB5E/NpUmqfylj5k/s1600/alt-text.jpg" alt="alt text"/>
What are Image Titles?
Although there are no concrete proofs of how Image Titles can improve searches, most web browsers display the Image Titles when you hover the mouse over an image. So your Image Titles can inform and aid you users in having more information about the image.
What are Image File Name?
Image File Names compose the img url and is therefore also important in improving your searches. It should describe the image so that it relates to your site content.
Image Location
For small to medium website, its better to have a separate image folders.
In my example below, my image folder is "s1600"
<img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mOM_09UCkw4/Tn70F4q0dvI/AAAAAAAAB5E/NpUmqfylj5k/s1600/alt-text.jpg" alt="alt text"/>
For larger websites, it is advisable to have a separate image folder for each category.
In my example below, my image folder is "seo"
<img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mOM_09UCkw4/Tn70F4q0dvI/AAAAAAAAB5E/NpUmqfylj5k/seo/alt-text.jpg" alt="alt text"/>
Image Tips:
- Always apply more logical spelling (avoid _, - , etc.)
- Always be mindful of harmonious site content
- Separate keywords with dashes, not underscores
- Place the image in the immediate vicinity of keyword-related content
- Try to minimize the number of unnecessary images per page as low as possible (except for photo gallery or product search results)
- Avoid using stopwords as keywords
- Images include buttons, icons and bullets too
Got SEO Image Tips, Image Titles , Image Alt Texts , Image Titles and Image Location? Hope you can share them too.
