Smart Images
What the search engines can't see might be hurting you

Images on websites help break up copy and add another dimension to the user experience. Images are also very useful in helping your site with search engine rankings. Search engines don't pay attention to all the images on your site. They usually only pay attention to linked images. The thinking is, if something has a link than it has a relevance.

Common Mistakes

A common mistake in designing a site is to use graphics where text can be used. Most people don't know they are sacrificing search rankings by using graphics in places where text can be used. In most cases the text can be styled to improve it's look and still be used by the search engines. This way we have nice looking text that also is used by the search engines.

1. This is normal text and can be "read" by the search engines.
2. This is an image and although you can see that it has the same content as example number one, the search engines can't see it. It also doesn't have a link, thus this is for the users benefit only. The search engine will ignore it.

Special Images

Search engines seek out special images on your site. Those special images are images that are linked. Linked images are images on your site that have links to other pages in the site.

1. This linked image is a picture of a tangerine.

• The name of the image file is "delicious-tangerine.jpg"
• The page it links to is "fruit-basket-tangerine.html"
• The ALT tag for the image is
  "Delicious Tangerine - FREE Shipping - Click Here"

We use several keywords in the above example: delicious tangerine, fruit basket, free shipping. For each element: file name, link file name, and alt tag the search engine pays attention to each element. We use these specific words because we did research that reveals that this is what people are searching for. Now let's look at the second example.

2. This image is not linked. Like example number 1 it is a picture of a tangerine.

• The name of the image file is "delicious-tangerine.jpg"
• There is no link
• The ALT tag we used for the image is "Delicious Tangerine - FREE Shipping"

The second example did not have a link and thus the search engines don't count it towards your ranking, it's ignored. All the other elements are the same, except for a link. The link is what makes it relevant to the search engines. We still use an ALT tag, "Delicious Tangerine - FREE Shipping," for the users benefit.

How the Search Engines "see" your graphics

The search engines send out software programs to scan your site in order to index it. These search engine programs, called spiders or bots, can't read graphics like you or I, they just see the code. We can do something to help the search engines.

We add ALT tags to the images to provide a short description of what that image is. For example if the image is a button that reads "Fresh Fruit" we would write an ALT tag that says "Fresh Fruit". This is not only helpful to the search engines in ranking the site, but also for users of the page. Should all the images on my site have ALT tags, you might be asking yourself? The simple answer is that it's not necessary to make ALT tags for all the images on your site, but it is helpful to do so for any image that has text in it. Images with ALT tags, but aren't linked, don't really effect your site ranking. Images without links do make a difference to the usability of your site for users. It's a good practice to add ALT tags to any image with text for the users of your site.

What do I need to do with my images?

1. The link itself
- You can use keywords in the file names for the link and it certainly won't hurt as long as it's relevant

Example: link = /organic-fruit/free-shipping.html

2. The ALT tag for the image
Example: <img src="organic-fruit.gif" ALT="Organic Fruit with FREE Shipping - Click Here for More Information">

In both examples above the search engines will pay attention to the text for the image and the link. In both cases the search engines will find "organic fruit" and "FREE Shipping"

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