Search Engine Image Optimization

by Shawn Collins on July 21, 2010

I was listening to the Both Sides of the Tracks podcast earlier this week, and was interested in the discussion between Jason Rubacky and Eric Nagel on dominating image results.

I typically monitor image results for Shawn Collins in Google Images, but I haven’t paid a lot of attention to Bing and Yahoo.

When it comes to Google Images, I’ve got a decent amount of competition with an ex-NFL player, clothing designer, rapper, graphic designer, and some criminals.

Even so, I account for a large share of the results in Google. I’m doing pretty well for Shawn Collins in Bing Images, too.

Yahoo is a different story. I don’t exist there in the image results.

So, it’s time for Operation Search Engine Image Optimization.

I am working on some methods to own those results. Stay tuned.

Do you control the results for your company and/or name?

{ 10 comments }

Josefina ArgÃ¼ello November 17, 2010 at 11:04 am: Really fantastic article on image search optimization, particularly when you talked about adding ATL tags in images. This is really good information and I can’t wait to test it on my site. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Josefina ArgÃ¼ello
Shawn Collins August 17, 2010 at 1:40 pm: Hi Fran -

It depends where the image resides – if it’s on a relevant page of yours, you could get traffic there.

And if it’s on Flickr, you could include a link in the description of that image.
Frans August 17, 2010 at 11:29 am: I often ask myself if Image Search traffic is valuable? They are just looking for a picture right? Maybe they will read a little bit of your site when it relates, but I guess that will be for persons. E.g. If you are interested in Shawn Collins, you’ll like to read about him. But will it be of any use in other industries?
Shawn Collins July 28, 2010 at 2:41 pm: Thanks Judith – so do you always host them vs. putting them on Flickr and embedding their code?
Judith July 28, 2010 at 12:16 pm: One critical componant for ‘winning’ images searches is the ‘alt tag’. Naming your photos with the primary keyword for the page on which it is found will bring traffic. I ‘win’ at Google, and often at Yahoo and Bing as well, for a number of pages on my Minnesota site. Image searches are a huge contributor to my traffic.
Shawn Collins July 24, 2010 at 8:23 pm: I am just getting started and experimenting with some things, so I can’t say what is effective.
Shawn Collins July 24, 2010 at 7:08 am: It is a long-term work in progress, so there isn’t really a result to post – trying to figure out and dominate Google, Bing and Yahoo ongoing.
Tattoo Fever July 24, 2010 at 5:33 am: Hi.,

How are seo for images be done? Care to show us?
Disney World Savings Tips July 24, 2010 at 5:31 am: Hi Shawn,

This is something new to me. Image SEO. Post your result.

Thanks for sharing this to us.
mike l. July 22, 2010 at 9:57 pm: Very informative.