Do you Know how to use Images for SEO – a quick Guide
Image use in SEO is important, for many reasons. Using images specifically for search engine optimization is something that needs to be done strategically. As top Toronto digital marketing and SEO specialists, we hope to provide some insights here in how to use images for SEO.
Images are great for readers and website visitors. Images can help to break up the monotony of paragraph after paragraph of text. They are also easier to create and produce than video. Be it photography or graphic work, images play a key role in keeping audiences engaged. Now, in SEO terms, images must conveniently fit into the page. Assessing page layout and structure, images should be placed in a natural way. In addition to ensuring images have natural placement, alt-tags and description keywords can also be used to direct search engines as to what an image contains. For any website that wants images to play a role in their search ranking, these are the sorts of things one must be expected to adhere to.
Let’s assume you’re running a hotel website and you’re hoping to optimize for the term ‘Toronto hotel’. Combine that with a marketing message like ‘book today and save 30 percent off!’. The tagline does not contain any keywords however it is persuasive to the reader. Therefore, when using an image, consider placing the tagline direct into the image. Then, in the header tag or description tag for said image, the key term ‘Toronto hotel’ can be used. Just a simple decision like this maximizes search engine potential without compromising the opportunity for keywords. To this point, images are great for persuasiveness and appealing to consumers. They can however be a liability if they are accidentally misused with regards to search engines.
Use a similar approach when posting images to social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Images are a great delivery system in which one can provide marketing messages direct to consumer. In those images, persuasiveness should be the highest priority. Any keywords or descriptive text used in images will not be analyzed or seen by search engines. To have those keywords or descriptive text seen by search engines, they must be inserted into places where they can be indexed. That means inputting them into alt-text, headers, image descriptions, and more. Keyword-rich content descriptions combined with enticing messaging is the absolute best way to capitalize on images in search engine optimization.
Search engine optimization guides sometimes don’t mention images because, in large part, they don’t have great effect on a site’s rankings. Many marketers may deem them as useless, in this regard. We would disagree with that statement though. Images do have a purpose in user engagement and creating high quality content. For that reason, they warrant mention.
As expert digital marketers ourselves, we’ve used images, video, and text to maximize the impact of content marketing and SEO campaigns. In use, images have performed exceptionally well across many digital marketing channels. If you want to rank higher on Google, Bing, and other search engines and need a helping hand, we would love to assist. Speak with an SEO specialist today at Unlimited Exposure. A representative would be happy to discuss the potential for image use on your site and assist in building an advanced, high quality results-driven SEO strategy!