Recently I have been working on a series of webinars and today’s is about Search Engine Optimization. Since it is on my mind I thought I’d share one of the most important SEO tips for artists I know, SEO for images.
For most artists photographs and images are an important part of promoting themselves and their work online. I know many artists rely heavily on images in their blogs because they do not like to write much text. But I’ve noticed that many artists do not know that by taking one simple step their images become much more search engine friendly which makes them easier to find by people searching for art.
It is the file name for your images. You probably do not realize that this is the most important aspect of an image you post online. I am guessing you feel that what is in the image is more important. Keep in mind that the search engines do not know what the image is unless you tell them. A search engine can not visually look at your images (not yet anyways). I often notice images on artist sites that have files like, “IMG_627856327.jpg” or “small_portrait.jpg” and “flowers.jpg.” If you are guilty of this don’t worry, we’ll get you taken care of.
Let me give you some better examples of image names, “colorado-aspen-oil-on-canvas-your-name.jpg” or “photograph-old-truck-field.jpg” maybe even “claude-monet-inspired-sunrise.jpg.” Do you see the difference? The better examples are titles of words and terms people might be searching for. No one is going to put “IMG_627856327” into a search field on Google. I will agree that someone might enter “small portrait” or “flowers” in a search box but there is going to be too much competition for your file to show up on that search. Those words are way too common, an image search for “flowers” brings up almost 50,000,000 results. A search for “a photograph of an old truck in a field” (quotes included) produced zero results for an image with that specific name. But it is a well used search term so if you do have a photo of an old truck in a field, and you name your image file that, you have a much better chance of showing up when someone who is in the market for an image of an old truck in a field photograph searches for one.
The easiest way to say it is name your images with a description of the image. Doing this one small thing will really help people find you on the web. I get a lot of traffic to this site and other artist sites that I manage because of this one step I take with images.
Need some help with this? Google has you covered with the Google Image Labeler. Give it a try, it is kind of like a game you play with another random person online.
And if you are a Wordpress.org user try out the SEO Friendly Images plugin for an automatic boost.
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