Utilize Your Website’s Images & Links for SEO Purposes

July 1, 2014

CONSUME CREATIVELY

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We all know how crucial customizing text content with specific keywords is for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes on your website, but what about images?
When using images on your website don’t think of them simply as visual entertainment; think of them as an extra boost to the keywords throughout your content. Did you know you could add searchable words, behind the scenes, to images?! Yep, you can.

I feel like every little bit helps, so why not take these few extra steps (plug your keywords into a couple more spots) to help your business get discovered.

Alt & Title Text

We pull on our gloves and provide cleaning services in Columbia, MO.

Alt and Title text: We pull on our gloves and provide cleaning services in Columbia, MO.

Website images have two “descriptions,” if you will. These are called alt tags and title tags.

Alt Text

An alt tag is “alternative” text which will be visible if for some reason an image is broken. You don’t want your image to be broken, of course, but think of it like this: it’s an extra way to sneak in a keyword. BOOM.

Title Text

Have you ever noticed when you hover your mouse over an image and a little box pops up? That’s the image title! You can’t see it all the time, however, it’s just another added bonus place to plug keywords.

To keep things simple and easy, it is perfectly acceptable to use the same descriptions for both alt and title tags. For these descriptions it’s best to stick to short phrases or sentences.

When building Sunshine Cleaning, we utilized the images for the website’s SEO. The example image I’ve used here is from the Services page. On this particular page, we optimized with the keywords: “cleaning services in Columbia MO”.

The alt and title text describes the image, or what Sunshine Cleaning offers, and also utilizes the keyword we researched for this page. If you hover your mouse over the image of the hands wiping the sink, you will see the title text pop up.

File Name

Image for File Naming Example

Instead of naming your image IMG68735, try something like “mop_cleaning_services_columbia_mo” to utilize your SEO keywords.

We may not really consider image file names when adding them to our website because who’s gonna see those, right?? Wrong.

Search engines crawl every word of content on the back end of your website, even image file names. Be sure to include your keywords within your file name, but keep it short and concise.

Link Titles

Optimizing link buttons or words for specially chosen keywords can sometimes be a challenge.

Just like images, links can have title text within the html code behind the scenes. This is just another prime location to squeeze your keywords in to optimize your SEO.

For example, on the Sunshine Cleaning Services page there are several areas where we link to the contact page. Within this example is linked text to the Contact page:

Please contact Sunshine Cleaning if you are interested in these additional services, we are happy to provide you with whatever you need.”

If you hover your mouse over the blue link you will see the link’s title pop up: “Contact Sunshine Cleaning Columbia MO”. While a link’s title is descriptive it does not need to be a full sentence, or longer phrase, like the image titles. Keep it concise and clearly indicate where the link will be taking your visitor.

Image Size

Lastly, consider the size of the images you use. While the size doesn’t directly effect your SEO it DOES effect your bounce rate. How long will you sit and wait for a webpage to load? I imagine it’s not long, maybe 3-5 seconds.

If you have images with large file sizes on your website, load time will increase exponentially and could possibly cause your visitors frustration… they may leave before they’ve even gotten to know you! Consider keeping your file sizes below 50kb, though below 30kb is even better.

Who Manifested This Madness?

Monica Maye Pitts

This fabulous human, that's who.

Monica Maye Pitts

Monica is the creative force and founder of MayeCreate. She has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with an emphasis in Economics, Education and Plant Science from the University of Missouri. Monica possesses a rare combination of design savvy and technological know-how. Her clients know this quite well. Her passion for making friends and helping businesses grow gives her the skills she needs to make sure that each client, or friend, gets the attention and service he or she deserves.

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