If you have thought about exploring Photo search for SEO purposes in the past but never got around to it, now is the best time to launch an attack on this awesome traffic source. It’s 2021 and everyone is talking about voice search, but while voice search promises to be a big deal, photo search shouldn’t be overlooked.
It should be right up on the table as you look to polish your SEO skills. Image finder is one of the main things that matter to the blogger’s community. And since images are on every single page of a website it would be unwise to not optimize and get the most out of them.
Image optimization benefits you in many ways, including quicker page load times. It also makes it easier for searchers to find you.
Below are some of great tricks to gain traffic to your blog from image searches are:
1- Name Your Images
When we first upload an image to our blog, it usually has a default name that looks like IMG_675532. Not only does that make it hard for you to find the image, but it also makes it impossible for image search engines to know what to do with it.
Image search engines need some context from you so that their users can understand the image’s subject matter. Once it understands this, it can rank the image appropriately and provide it to users who are looking to gain this information.
So, before you upload any images, rename them first. All your image names must be short, to-the-point, precise, and should include a keyword for search by image.
2- Pay for Original, Outstanding Images
For bloggers, the aim should be to use visually appealing images. Great images get a good amount of attention. If a startling image accompanies a post on social media, it has a ten times better chance of being upfront.
This increases its shares and chances of going viral, which boosts traffic.
If you’re on a tight budget, it’s appealing to use free photos for your blog. But they are not always the best. Stock images might look drab and fake. They also look like stock images, which can harm the overall appearance of your blog.
To reduce the headache of using copyright images by mistake consider websites like Shutterstock. they let you pay a set fee for a certain amount of quality images.
If you want to find similar images like one you have then you should use an online tool like reverse image search. This photo search tool also helps you to find the source of an image and who owns that image within a matter of seconds. This photo search tool will not only provide you with the best quality images by wandering through all big search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex and Baidu, but also provides you with an option reverse image search which helps when you have a photo, and you have to find relevant images that provide the same effect as yours to your blog.
3- Optimize your Alt tags
Just as important as naming your images, you should also work on optimizing your alt tags with appropriate text. Google itself has also stated the importance of alt text. An alt tag explains the content of each of your images.
If an image can’t be loaded for some reason, the user will see an image box containing the alt tag instead of the image. This allows them to know what would have been in the image if it was loaded, and it also improves your SEO efforts when you use keywords for alt text.
When someone searches for an image similar to yours, there is a good chance that they will find your picture in the search engine results if you have used the appropriate and common keywords in your alt tags.
4- Add Captions
Jakob Nielsen Quoted in 1997 about how to write for social media and not much has changed regarding it:
“Elements that enhance scanning include headings, large type, bold text, highlighted text, bulleted list, graphics, captions, topic sentences, and tables of content.”
People scan articles. Sometimes, they read the captions beneath an image more often they read the article itself. That is how captions that accompany a startling image can bring a reader’s interest back in the article if they are compelling enough.
It also ensures that the reader then makes it to your CTA at the end of a blog. Captions are important because:
a) They give photo search engines more framework about an image.
b) They are a great way to slip in more keywords into your post.
There is no need to add captions to every image. If a page has plenty of images, too many captions would annoy the reader.
CONCLUSION
Getting traffic to your blog through photo search is fairly upfront and unlike any other SEO campaigns, it doesn’t require much effort. Next time you post a blog try using these tips and remember to optimize your images each time you add them.
It will save you a lot of time and will surely boost your traffic.
