SEO Tip: Don't Forget About Google Images
A picture is worth a thousand words, except when you are dealing with search
engines.
Google’s crawlers do not read images, but they do read text. So, for those businesses that have very visual products—think, interior design firms, art galleries, clothing boutiques—it becomes more important to attach alt-text to every image to ensure proper site optimization and to generate more qualified leads.
What is alt text?
Alt text, short for alternative text, is the description of the image. If the image suddenly disappeared, you would want your text to outline what was once there. For example, I would want to ensure that I added alt text to the image below that said “jockey monkey riding horse”.
Why does alt text matter?
For many sites that have a large amount of text, the alt text on images will be less important. However, for sites where visitors are looking for something more visual, the proper alt text could actually generate leads.
Let’s assume that I was searching for rustic kitchens. I would most likely go to Google images and do my search there. I want to see examples; I don’t necessarily want to read about examples.
By searching for “rustic kitchens” in Google images, I can use the visual library and find an example that I like. More importantly, if I am looking for rustic kitchens because I want to remodel my kitchen, I may call that interior designer or architect if I find I like her work.
A similar example would be a yellow sundress. If you are a clothing boutique, do not forget about the alt text for the images of your items for sale. This is an opportunity to directly convert a sale from organic search.
Takeaway Tip:
Look at all images on your site and ensure they are Google images friendly by adding descriptive alt text.
Polaroid photo credit: MyInkBlog.com.
