How to optimize images for Google search

Have got a beautiful image file and have uploaded the same in your website. Good, will this file that you uploaded be recognized by search engine? Do you know to optimize images before uploading images to your website? Say you have uploaded an image file of a car in the showroom but the file name says something like "DSC001234.JPG" or "IMG042562.JPG", it's easy for us to identify the car by just looking at the image but the computers and the search engines are not smart enough to understand that there is a car in this image. It will look into the image file name and the names like the one mentioned above doesn't make sense. So, what can be done to make your images search engine friendly?

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First thing is to rename the file, here car-showroom.jpg. Just renaming the file isn't enough. Go to image properties and add alt text and description to this image. At text is very important and for the above example the alt text should be something like 'car in the showroom'. Search engine cannot understand an image with some numerical and alphabets like  IMG042562.JPG and this is the reason why more details like the file name, title, alt text, description is a must to fill. This will not only make Search engine identify but will also show up in the image search results and hence more traffic or visitors to your website.

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Keep the alt text simple and shot some where around seven to ten words just enough for the computers to understand. Alt text not only helps search engines, but also the screen readers, if the image doesn't appear because of slow network for a user then this alt test description will be displayed. Do not add too many words in the alt text field. You can update your code to some thing like

<IMG SRC='Car.JPG'
ALT= "Car in the showroom">

So, the next time you upload an image to your blog post or website do not blindly upload an image. Optimize images well before uploading. The image to the right is from Wordpress. Leave a comment and share this post with your friends if it was helpful. Also, don't forget to subscribe for FREE updates.