Last week I did a simple test on an old post that I wrote titled: My 4th of July Festivities in Myrtle Beach, SC. What are you doing?!? In the article, I shared a few photos that I took of me grilling out some steaks to celebrate the holiday with the in-laws. For fun, I edited this post & decided I would label my photos "Best Steaks in Myrtle Beach" I did this on purpose to prove a point.
In my post, that phrase is used nowhere other than just the labeling of my pictures. Today, I ran a google image search to see where my photos ranked. I wasn't really surprised to find them in the #1 & 2 spaces on Google. I know what many of you are thinking, "Who Cares if your photos rank high in google image search?" Well, if you haven't paid attention to this before, you may want to now, because there is a tremendous amount of Google Juice involved. When google searches your site, they are no longer just looking at the text comments. They are also reading your images & any text associated with the image to help categorize the web page.
Peter Linsley, who is a product manager for Google Images did a great video on google images search. He explains why images are important to SEO & also why consumers are using image search. The video gets very technical & geeky, so I will warn you ahead of time. Nevertheless, it has a few good points.
Two Reasons to Appeal to Google Image Search for Consumers.
1. Images have a very broad exposure. By labeling your photos properly, you are increasing your exposure tremendously. In the example above, if I was searching for the best steaks in Myrtle Beach, I would use the regular Google search, but I would also look at the images to see actual photos of the steaks. I am very much a visual person, so I want to actually see the results instead of just reading about it.
Before you say it, let me extinguish this complaint: "But this has nothing to do with real estate, so who cares?" You are correct, this doesn't have a thing to do with real estate. But, how many times do you visit a website from Google in search of one thing & end up noticing something else? Think with the Walmart Mentality. Also, when you are placing your actual real estate photos, you should be labeling them as well for the searches. Like stated before, it gives those using Google image search the ability to find you, & also helps increase your overall Google ranking.
2. People Search More than Just #1! When someone is doing an image search, they are going to look at more than just #1 on the list. In Fact, many times, they will search through several pages to find the photo that catches their eye. So even if you are not lucky enough to get your photo landed in the #1-5 spots, the importance of labeling the photos is still present because if you have the most visually appealing photo, the consumer will visit your page.
202 Billion photos Labeled img.
That is right! There are over 202 Billion images on Google that have never been labeled properly. That means there is such a huge amount of photographs out there that may be some of the most amazing pieces of art that nobody will ever be able to search. ActiveRain has made it very easy for you to label your photographs.
Under the Image URL box you will notice the Image Description & Title. You can set these to be whatever you wish. I normally make them both the same so that there is no question to the search engines or consumers what the photograph is supposed to represent. You want to make sure you fill in both boxes. The Image Description is what Google will read & associate with the photo. The title box is what consumers will read when they hover over the photo.
If you leave these fields empty, both Google & Consumers May not know what your pictures mean. Also the search engines cannot find you. Implementing this simple & easy step takes only a few extra seconds while writing your posts, but the benefits from it can be endless. So, if you have been contributing to the 202 million, it is time to stop & contribute some SEO to yourself!
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Hi Jeremy ~ This is valuable advice. I've been amazed by how much of the traffic on my blog comes from images.
Liz
Hi, Jeremy! Thanks for the tips!
Wow...I never thought of this and will start taking it seriously from now on! Thanks!
Okay, you can turn off your ignore button on Twitter now...
Jeremy - Great Post! I started doing this not to long away and I already have some pictures on the first page of google images.
I do label my photos, and it really has help my websites get more visits. Thanks for the insight
I've heard this before but your example that actually demonstrates this has inspired me. I'm going to go label my phots right now. Thanks!
I will eventually learn all this stuff -- boy this is valuable! Thank you!
What's the vote count for Isabelle?
Wow, that's a shame that all those pics are not getting categorized in Google. I just thought to do it so that it would boost your keywords in Google. I don't know why you wouldn't do it and your post explains all the benefits.
I just searched my name in Google images and it was hilarious with what came up!
I have been doing this for quite some time now - so for the fun of it I did a search on google images for homes for sale neighborhood city - which is a term I use in one way or another and I see 14 pics on the fist two rows. 8 are mine :) - sweet. ~Rita
Jeremy -- when I first started on Active Rain, I did not label my photos, but at some time, I read a post about it and have doing it ever since. This is great information
It does amaze me how many websites I go to (including new clients of mine) that don't have embedded text in their photos, Jeremy. Like you, I have seen the value of added Google Juice in simply placing text in the photo. When you click on a photo to view it, it takes you to the website it is placed on. Hello???!!! Ring any bells there? :) As usual, great advice.
Jeremy - I used to do a great job of labeling my images, then I got off track at some point. I even wrote a tutorial about it awhile back! Thanks for the reminder.
Many people don't know a thing about alt image text and why it is important. I just looked at my Austin real estate website stats and found over 70 people clicked over from images.
Good stuff.....very very good stuff. One never knows the power of the label until we try it. Thanks!!!
Absolutely. I also add my name to the last entry to discourage copyright violators.
Again, excellent info on getting the most of blogging. I greatly appreciate everything I have learned so far and look forward to learning a lot more. I take back all those terrible things I said about you! Oh wait, that was someone else. Never mind.
But thanks again!
I just started blogging and I have not been labeling my photos. I sure will, from now on. I have learned alot from reading blogs and really appreciate the good advice. Thanks!
Gobsmacked!!! Thanks for the great tip!!!
Hi Jeremy -- I've been doing this for a while now and I can imagine for relevant photos, it will come in handy.
real estate buyers love pictures, why not name then. Also makes it eaiser to use for other marketing
Featured @ Club Chaos
Jeremy - excellent post and you are absolutely correct about labelling photos correctly.
Jeremy - I have always labeled my pics. In fact I show up more than anyone in my areas because of it. Good points here to be heeded.
When we post images on our AR blog, do we manually need to go in to add the "alt" tag?
Great post and good information. I always try to label my photos correctly.
Jeremy, thanks for this info. I've labeled most of my photos, but maybe not as SEO friendly has needed and I'm bad not to put in a title. Good information to know why they are important
Hi Jeremy, Again excellent post. yes I agree totally. We must label our photos with our names, ect. thanks for sharing
Jeremy...
You and Blog-n-Roll Brad are hurting me with the information overload thing :)
TLW...ROAR!
Jeremy - Just the other day I was doing a search on my website and I have 16 unnamed photos. This post inspired me to fix them! You're so right - images DO need a name! Thanks for reminding me!
Good advice on images. ALT tags are one of the most overlooked components of SEO, and I imagine real estate related images (homes, neighborhoods, maps) get a pretty good volume of searches.
Jeremy, I have known this for some time now but thanks for sharing it with those who don't.
Helping you live your American Dream...
okay, so what is "alt"?
Jeremy,
Just so everyone understands the importance of this, images.google.com sent a little over 3% of the traffic to our site in the last 30 days. That's over 60,000 visits a month to ActiveRain from someone doing a search on Google images. And my guess is that not a ton of our members are doing an effective job of labeling their photos.
If they were doing a better job, we would drive even more traffic to the site from images.google.com
Awesome post, I think you posted something about this, labelling your images for google juice before? That's crazy that many images don't have names, but I supposed I also contributed to that fact!
The 'alt' tag is the tag that we use to tell the search engines what the image is about. As long as you fill in the 'image description' box, we make an alt tag out of the words you use in that box. That 'alt' tag tells google what is in the image since theoretically they can't read the picture
(I believe they can read the picture and I also believe that if you try to BS google about what is in the picture, they will know. That means if your photo is of a kids baseball game, you can't put 'Homes for sale in Seattle, Homes for sale in Bellevue, Homes for Sale in Redmond' and try to fool google. You should just stick with 'kids little league game at Green Lake Park in Seattle'.)
Great idea! I had never thought of doing that. I will get right on it!
Jeremy, I've been really impressed by the number of people who find my website and blogs by the labels on my images. This is really important. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for the helpful info Jeremy. We always appreciate your tips.
Jeremy, one ? for you, should we still label the photo even if it is not an original ( one bought copyright free on line for example )?
Wow! Such good information. Thank you for this timely "alert"!
My posts are usually photo-intensive, so I've always labeled them, but hadn't thought to check Google Images (so many places to check so many things, so little time...). So thank you for pointing this out. I just checked and was pleased to see that I have images on the first several pages for Sisters Oregon, with both AR posts and Localism posts featured. Bless you!
Jeremy: This is great information.. I have been labeling photo for several months now.. Just never knew how to check good ranks on them.
I always try to label the same and give them a good descriptive name. Thanks for sharing.
Great post. I'm on overload every day. I keep learning more tips the more I read.
thank you
I just did a google image seach using the term Jump Zone Clarksville Tennessee and 6 of the images on the first page are mine ! Pretty cool
Great reminder of one of those things we need to be doing, but often forget. When it comes to SEO the devil's in the details...
Wow! 60,000 visits from images.google.com per month! That is some major traffic coming in! Thanks for sharing that Bob!
As for the question should I label photos that I didn't take but have dl & used with rights. You can label those, I would just suggest labeling them like this: Best Steaks in Myrtle Beach, By Jeremy Blanton. Give the subject, but also give credit to the originator.
I have been dilligently labeling all my photos on Active Rain and on my website. My images show up on the first page of Google images for every key seach term in my market.
Would not have thought about it unless I read it on Active Rain previously.
Thanks Active Rain.
Jeremy, Lenn Harley taight me this when I first started blogging. It was and still is great advice.
Jeremy, WalMart yesterday and now this! Where else could anyone get better information? I'm going back to my old blogs, etc to see if I remembered to label the photos. Thank you so much for your reminder.
I learned a long time ago on AR to label my images though I think I may still need some work on the perfect labels.
Great post, while I do label my photos I may need to be a bit more thoughtful about how to do so to achieve the best seo.
Jeremy, thanks for the helpful info and the tips. You make everything sound so simple.
A great point and a wonderful post! Thanks! A winner as always!
Jer...
Absolutely, there are so many SEO benefits to be derived from spending just a few minutes properly labeling your photos!
I am pretty good about labeling photos... but I'm not good at labeling them as strategically as I could... There is ALWAYS room for improvement.
Like Mr Crouch, I used to label religiously, but have eased up a little recently.
... time to step it up again !
Great reminder Jeremy !
Cheers !
Sheldon
So I guess when I have the photos labeled in my own iPhoto on my Mac, those titles don't get transferred over to blogs?
Thanks so much for your great pointers!
Jeremy,
Thanks for the heads up...!!! Thanks, Fran
I'm really glad to see your post. I usually make the description and the title the same too. Wondered if it was accurate.
I try to save myself time and label those photos I think are blog worthy photos to use in the future.
I have labeled a few photos but will definitely label all of them from here on out. I will also start labeling them with my name also...great tip from you and Lenn.
I think you should do (in your free time of course) another post in 30 days and update us on how many visitors come over to AR from google images. 60,000 is a lot for one month and I think Bob is probably right, most AR members probably are not labeling their images! My guess is we will all start paying attention and label our images from here on out. So I think it would be fun to see what happens now that you have written about the importance of labeling those photos and watch and see how the number of visitors go up!
Jeremy, thanks for the advice, I haven't been doing that lately.- But will start again. Also thank you for always helping me when I email with a problem, I truly appreciate it.
I've got to start thinking how I label my photos! Thanks for getting me thinking about this.
Mike in Tucson
I have this great idea about a software program that someone needs to write for me. I want to be able to change every unnamed jpg and gif file to carolpease.jpg Do you think that would change my ranking on Google??
I am labeling the photos and still voting for Isabella
Thanks Jeremy, I am going to label all my images now.
Yes, giving your image an accurate file name is very important as well. Meaning when you save your picture, don't call it "imagenumber12" but make it more descriptive and try to add the keyword you are targeting in the page you are going to upload the picture. I believe the reason behind it is that SE can read the picture file name. Cathy Chaudemanche
This was something that I had been slack about. I now do it on every photo I put out on my website and my blog.
when checking mybloglog for how people landed on my blog, I am amazed at how many actually come thorugh google images, you are right, name them well with your key words (long and short!)
Jeremy (and Bob),
Never thought to search images but I am delighted! On page 1 of results, I have 5 of the 15 slots including numbers 1, 2 & 4. Whatever posts I read about tagging images must have sunk in unconsciously because it is a happy accident.
Will now improve my image tagging!
Jeremy, I've been labeling my photos for a while because I knew I should but didn't really know how it worked. This is best explanation I've read anywhere why someone should label images. Thanks!
Excellent post. I have not used google images. I really loved the Wall Mart analogy. Good information as always
Thanks for the info. I always give a descriptive title to my photos but almost never add a description. It looks like that's one important thing I need to correct.
i found this out by accident and not by design. Thanks for filling me in on the details.
Jeremy, I read a tutorial on this when I first started to write posts on my blog.
Hi Jeremy-This is great info. Anything we can do to increase our ranking on Google is a good thing. Thank you and have a great day. :-)
Hi Jeremy, Great post, thanks for doing this research for us.
Thanks for the reminder. Photos are a great source of leads.
Jeremy,
I am guilty as charged. Thanks for this post! Bob, thank-you for your comments as well.
Good points, it just takes a little bit of extra effort.
Thanks for the reminder, I sometime get a little lazy with my photo labeling.
(PS - Just voted for Isabelle! Too cute!)
Thanks for the excellent presentation, Jeremy. I was trained right on AR long ago, I guess. I have always labeled my photos, but I do it for the member hover reason, like I saw the veteran AR members doing. Thank you for pointing out how really important this is for Google.
Reminder folks, I hover over all of your photos for an explanantion and I am amazed at the number of members that do not perform this simple step. Only takes 10 seconds and now you and I know how important this can be. Why do such a great job with your post and leave the images with no Google juice. You won't now, I bet. Thanks again, AR guru!
Wow, Jeremy, a Duh! moment here. I didn't realize that you could add your name or even a long title!
Thank you.
Great information, Jeremy! Now I understand.... Can you put your web address in the description? I post photos to our town's visitors site, can I put the link in there to my site? Keep up the good work.
Great information. There are only maybe a dozen agents in kansas city who are doing that with any consistancy. Luckily I am in the dozen. Good stuff!
Thanks for the tip. It really make sense. Looks like you gave me some work to do.
Awesome to know.... I always wondered what those boxes were for.
Hi Jeremy, Finally got some of this tech stuff right. I had read something on this before and have been consistent on including the labels. Didn't know it was best to use the same tag on both.
So true - however I feel the need to point out it's getting obvious that agents are using pics just to get Google recognition - when the picture has nothing to do with their post - I think some are loosing sight of the need to remain professional on their blogs - for instance your'e writing about USDA loans and you post a picture of your dog - huh? C'Mon - put some thought into your post - including your pictures!!!
This is so true - I have really focused a lot more in the last year or so on the picture compnents:)
I am still amazed to find out how many webmasters take the easy way out and not label the photos on your personal web site. Check out your own web site today -- right click on the photo on your web site or the logo on your web site and check out properties or save the file and see what name on the photo comes up.
Wow Jeremy, very cool. We have been labeling our photos - kind of half-heartedly but are going to step up our efforts now for sure. Thanks for the rationale about why it's important.
About to go label photos like it's going out of style. Thanks, Jeremy!
3% of ActiveRain traffic from images.google.com? I never would have thought that so many people would search via images and then click to the website.
The alt and title tags are also very important for screen readers used by people with poor or no vision. It helps them understand what you are displaying in your picture.
Jeremy - Wow ! That is a lot of photos that are not labeled and a great point in terms of how important it is for all us to label our photos ! Great info !
Excellent post. Very often people give no thought to the image description or "alt text". A SEO guru, and former employer, explained to me the importance of taking lots of photos of homes in your farm area and naming them with their addresses and your name or website. In Flckr you could add links in the image description and get some inbound links but recently those became no-follow so that use is gone but they still show up in search results for address and neighborhood searches, Some of these may also show up in the blended search results for keywords related to your market.
Please, heed Jeremy's word and properly label your images.
3% of traffic coming from Image search is pretty cool... I know I get some, but i've never paid enough attention to know just how much.
Jeremy: What a great idea. I never realized the importance of actually labeling my pictures. Now... after your post... it all makes much better sense. Thanks so much. So now... I guess I'll see you in about a zillion months or so. I need to go back and label all the pictures from my 541 posts. Uh huh. On second thought... maybe just try and do it from here on out, and go back and re-label whenever I can. But... thanks again.
Jeremy, I learned about labeling pictures early on but saw some bloggers labeling their photos "......Realtor" when it was a picture of a house, so I got confused. Bob just cleared that up. I'm very glad you posted this :) It had never occurred to me that Google images would be tracking our photos too.
Sharon
Jeremy, can you spell this out a little better for us:
If the "Image URL" takes them to the picture,
In "Image Description" would we put something like "Real in Brampton, Ontario" and
"Title" would we put something like "kitchen"
Thanks for clearing this up.
Al and Peggy Cunningham
Great article. Although I am new to SEO, I consider myself fairly knowledgable (I am sort of a tech geek). That said, I have never even thought about SEO as it applies to images. I am going to start doing this immediately. Thanks Jeremy!
Al & Peggy- if it is a picture of a kitchen, I would put Kitchen in Brampton Ontario for both boxes.
Jeremy,
Your last post #105 answered my question. Thanks, great info!
Jer, I am revisiting this post (without coffee again). I think I will make it my goal this week to visit my post with photos and update the labels. Thanks for sharing.
Jer, I am revisiting this post (without coffee again). I think I will make it my goal this week to visit my post with photos and update the labels. Thanks for sharing.
Awesome advice! I never thought about the benefits of labeling, but I definitely will now!
Awesome Post! Saving it to read it over again. Need to remember this good information. Thanks so much.
Jeremy, this is such a great post - coming back to read and refresh my memory again on labeling photos.
This is a small thing that a lot of people miss. You can go around your town taking photos of local places and tagging them with local keywords and put them in your Flickr account. I would also urge Realtors to take good pictures of listings and upload them to Flickr with address titles and use neighborhood and suburb names as tags. If you have your website link liberally sprinkled throughout your Flickr account it may lead to some extra traffic.
Thank you for the tips
Jeremy,
Thanks for the post....I too haven't gotten slack...then when I checked my website stats I noticed some are coming in via those images....I too will be more faithful...and I appreciate the tip of writing the same in both fields...I had ALWAYS wondered about that!
Great info, always something new to learn. Thank God for ActiveRain!
Very good info. Thanks for sharing.