How to SEO Your Images

I’ve also found if you link directly to the image, the anchor text in question also can rank – found that out by accident after Anthony Shapley had a drawing he did of a cock ranking for his name (which kind of sparked of a mini SEO war, thankfully that died down)!

Actually, it’s a mix of issues you’re experiencing there.

Firstly, Google Image Search apparently “analyzes the text on the page adjacent to the image, the image caption and dozens of other factors to determine the image content” (http://www.google.com.vn/intl/vi/help/faq_images.html#how).

That’s a bit wooly on the description side, I know, but it hints at the fact that the alt attribute bears no special relevance in the analysis.

Secondly, your XHTML is actually pretty shoddy. It’s most likely this that’s your biggest issue. Semantically, you’re not really associating much with the image. Something better would be:

<ul id="team">
    <li>
        <h3><img src="/images/slaterlol.png" alt="">James Slater</h3>
        <p class="position">Software Developer</p>
        <p>James was sired by wolves in the wilds of Yorkshire.</p>
    </li>
</ul>

Here I’ve pushed the image (inline element) into the H3 (block level element) with the name of the developer, and I’ve removed the alt attribute value.

Placing the inline element into a more structurally important block level element (the H3 rather than the div) improves the relationship between it and the other content of that element—in this case, the name of the developer.

Removing the value of the alt attribute has removed repetition of content, which is confusing for screen reader users and, I suspect, for the search engine spider. It’s best to treat img elements as sentences in HTML, since it will be treated like any other inline element, except the value of the alt attribute will be its content.

Loading the alt attribute with keywords is really no different to loading a span element with keywords; it bears no real value.

Before, it appears Google couldn’t work out which content was specifically related to this image. Hopefully, with more carefully structured semantic mark-up, it should better understand the content of your page.

@Tim Pfffft I do agree with you.

I was looking at it more from a proximity and code flow from an SEO POV if that makes sense.

If James had 2 or 3 images I would want it coded :

Title Image Keyword ( h3)

Image keyword_1.png alt = “description + keyword”
Image keyword_2.png alt = “description + keyword”
Image keyword_3.png alt = “description + keyword”

Image Description + Content

Dave

I’ve noticed for years that many of the top image results for my name are pictures that I’ve added to my blog posts…though as I check now, Google images seems to be adding a little “contextual text” explaining why the image “might be showing” (which still doesn’t explain why a picture of Julianne Moore should rank so highly for my name…).

If infomraiotn were soccer, this would be a goooooal!

Thanks for this – the exact same thing happens with our ‘meet the team’ page! Personally, I’d prefer to have someone else’s photograph show up instead of my own…..

How to SEO Your Images

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