The internet is an information highway. The basic premise of Google search is that a user puts a question in the queue because they are looking for a specific piece of useful information. A multitude of sites can come up on any given search. But sometimes the best answer is not expressed with words; perhaps an image is better. For instance, if a user wants to know about a particular painter’s artwork or the differences in certain species of snakes, an image would make a lot more sense than trying to decipher through paragraphs of text. In 2001, Google launched their Google Images. Basically, it searches the web in a very similar fashion, but it is looking for images which match the search query rather than some specific words.

image images

How Google Image Search Works

To find content, Google sends out bots that spider through the web searching for relevant content and indexing it. To obtain image results, Google still sends out a bot which spiders through the web looking for relevant information. However, this bot only indexes results from images. The biggest difference in these two types of bots is that the image bot is much slower and visits sites less frequently. The image-bot may visit your site only every 6 months and it can take up to a year to get your site’s images indexed.

When Google first launched Google Images in 2001, about 250 million images were indexed. By 2005, they had indexed well over a billion; and today they have more than 10 billion images indexed. Over the last ten years they have been working to enhance their technology so that internet users can find the exact image they are looking for. These include pictures, line drawings, clip art and even faces. They also have a unique “similar images” tool which can display images that are similar to other image search results.

Meeting Increased Demand

Searching specifically for images has become more popular over the last few years. Google is working on improving and updating their Google Images search to maximize results for users who are growing more interested in the visual aspects of the web 2.0.

The newest design for search results for Google Images has several advantages. Images are displayed in a tile format so that users can view several images at one time. Users can scroll down to see up to 1000 images all on one page. They have also revamped their thumbnail previews for the newer high resolution screens.

As the mouse passes over an image you get a larger view of the image that contains more information and specific features about this particular image. One click on the image takes the user to the landing page that will show the enlarged image with the hosting site displayed behind it. Simply click outside the image to see the page it is on which has more text and written information about the topic.

How to Optimize Google Alt tags

How can an image be optimized in a typical SEO campaign?  We have to realize first of all that the Google bot cannot actually see an image like an internet user can. The bot looks at several other factors and the details about the image to determine if it is relevant to the search. It‘s going to look at the Alt text, file name and surrounding text.

The Alt text is what is displayed when you mouse over the image. While you want to be as descriptive as possible with the Alt Text, you do not want to overdo it. Exclude any excessive words just include the basic description. It should look something like this:

<img src=”filename.jpg” alt=”place alternative description here”>

The alternative text needs to be simple and to the point such as “modern kitchen design”. The file name will not be much different. Don’t use general names such as pic45.jpg. Rename it with a simple, but descriptive name such as “blue-interior-kitchen.jpg.” If you try to throw in several keywords into the Alt and File names it will be unclear what the image contains and the bot may not index it.

Impact on SEO

For a NJ SEO campaign to get an image ranked high in Google Image searches, the entire page will need to be optimized around the image. Basically, this means keeping each page geared toward only one topic; do not try to optimize a page for multiple subjects. Develop the Meta and Title tags and make sure that the context is relevant as well.