Businesses should place images on their websites to act as a relevant visual aid for their written content on each page. While businesses typically do this to make their websites more visually appealing, many don’t realize that they can actually drive traffic back to their sites by optimizing their images for search. Consider the following tips to improve your SEO with images:

1. Find the Right Images

Research shows that the image you attach to your text greatly influences whether or not people will link back to you on their blogs or social media sites, so it’s important to take the time to select a great image that directly relates to the content of your website. Some good places to find public licensed images are: Flickr, creative commons search, and stock.xchng.

2. Use Keywords in the File Name

Using keywords in your written content is important for SEO and the same holds true for your images. Use a descriptive keyword when naming the file of your image to make sure search engines pick up on it. You can use long-tail keywords in the description, but keep the main keyword toward the beginning. Also, use a hyphen to separate words in the file name.

3. Descriptive Alt Text

In addition to the file name, alt text is another way for search engines to determine what the content of an image is so that you can gain a better SEO ranking. The alt text should describe what is happening in the image and include a maximum of two keywords.

4. Surrounding Text

Place your images close to related keywords because the text is important for rankings. The keywords in the body content of a webpage show search engines that the image should rank for the keywords you used in the file name and alt text.

Making a few simple changes to the images on your webpages will help you to improve your chances of ranking highly on the major search engines. If you are interested in learning more about the importance of Search Engine Optimization and the other steps involved in the process, please contact Fasturtle to speak with one of our expert online marketing representatives at 888-468-8785 or visit us online for more information.