What up Rockstars!? I took a few days off with my Rockstar SEO Series so just in case you missed it, my last post was an Intro to Universal Search. Be sure to check that out first if you’re unfamiliar with Universal Search.

As I’m sure most of you already know, it’s ridiculously competitive within the search engines. There are plenty of verticals that almost seem impossible to show up on the first page for certain keywords. Well now with universal search, there are a few ways to gain some competitive advantage. Image search is still relatively under-utilized. So… by utilizing image searches you can now get a piece of that massive traffic.

Getting down to the Nitty Gritty

Today I’m going to show you the “recommended” ways to optimize your images for image search.

Ready. Set. Go!

Essentially, all the search engines are looking for are a few references about the image on your site. They can define your image based off your use of proper XHTML attributes.

Let me explain.

• Description – The search engines put a big emphasis on the alt attribute. Be sure to give your image a useful description rather then stuffing it full of keywords.
• Where is the image located? A src attribute or the URL of the image. (e.g. image-file-name.jpg)
• What’s the size of the image? It needs the  width & height of the image specified in pixels. (e.g. 250 x 250)
• Mouse Hover All of your images need to have a title attribute. As users roll over the image with their mouse, they’ll see the title of the image “pop-up”.

TIP: Whenever you name an image file always be sure to use hyphens. NEVER use underscores.

Good Example: this-is-my-image.jpg

Bad Example: this_is_my_image.jpg

Now I know what they want, now how do I optimize for it?

Ok cool, so you know what the spiders are looking for. Let’s look at a few examples to show you how to do it.

Just like we talked about creating content the search engines love, the spiders are also pretty particular with how they scan images. First of all, search engines can’t read text inside images. If you want search engines to understand your content, keep it in regular HTML.

Rather than the spiders reading the embedded text on the image above, they use the image file name. The file name is where the image is located. For all you WordPress users out there, after you upload an image you can click on “File URL” and that will show you where your image is located. Be sure you’ve used hyphens and described it appropriately.

The image src attribute

http://www.jrfarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/snorkeling-trip-st-thomas.jpg

Which is much more descriptive than DSC00856.jpg

The alt attribute

This describes the contents of the image file. It is the KEY attribute for the spiders.

• Search engines use this information to determine the best image to return for a the given search query.
• If for some reason the file doesn’t load it will show that text to the user. So rather then it saying “DSC00856.jpg” it displays your alt attribute.

Stay away from “Keyword Stuffing” the alt attribute:

<img src="snorkeling-trip-st-thomas.jpg" alt="snorkeling ocean scuba diving fish goggles with snorkel virgin islands snorkeling ocean scuba snorkeling"/>

The End Result – “Best Practice”

<img src="http://www.jrfarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/snorkeling-trip-st-thomas.jpg"
title="Honeymoon Snorkeling Trip in St. Thomas"
alt="Honeymoon Snorkeling Trip in St. Thomas"
width="500" height="338" /></a>

That’s a wrap.

Well… if you really read through this you should be ready to rock and/or roll. Start taking advantage of this right away and test this out in different niche’s and see what results you get.

Often times people complain about the quality of traffic received from image search. Of course this isn’t paid search so yeah the quality is down but here’s my advice. Try doing some CPM advertising or throw up some Adsense and see how you do. You may be surprised!

I’m guessing you guys are liking this Rockstar SEO Series because I’m getting more & more followers and subscribers. Thanks! Follow JR Farr on Twitter or Subscribe to my RSS Feed so you don’t miss a post!

Previously in the Rockstar SEO Series

Intro to Universal Search

This is a quick overview of what universal search is and I’ll follow up on several sub-topic posts on how to optimize for universal search. The idea hasn’t been around for long but it’s slowly becoming more useful & popular among the search engines. Are you optimizing for it?

I remember almost a year ago, I was in San Jose, CA sitting in a SES (Search Engine Strategies) session that was all about universal search and where it was going. I sat there and listened to a panel that consisted of high-end engineers from the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN & Ask.

Hearing it first hand from the “source” was very interesting and they talked about plans that would improve universal search. It’s been neat to watch it evolve and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned from real experiences since then.

First things first, What is Universal Search?

The funny thing is, you’re using it everyday and probably don’t even notice. This is something that has slowly come into play throughout all the major engines over the past few years. I guess they call that Web 2.0ish or something like that.

Anyway, take a quick look at an example below:

You’ll see in the example above there’s more than just text links. Essentially, universal search blends different types of mediums together. These mediums range from:

• Images
• Videos
• Blogs
• News
• Products
• And the list goes on.

I searched the term “Michael Jackson“, (I know, I know…) and the search engines didn’t know if I was looking for videos, albums, images, etc. Therefore, the results range from news sources and a mix of images & videos to attempt the most relevancy possible. Since launching these type of SERPS, there has been more diversity and they have expanded to become more blended & relevant.

The Question is… How do you Optimize for it?

Funny you should ask

This is just a brief introduction to universal search. I wanted to be sure I explained what the concept was before I really got into it in my next posts. Over the next few Rockstar SEO installments, I’ll be sharing some great tips & tricks on how to rank for more than just a text link. Obviously, being ranked for a text link is a bad thing either.

I’ll cover these main points:

• How to Rank well for Image Search
• Video Search Optimization
• Google Base Optimization Tips & Tricks

Stay tuned…

Be sure that your either following me on Twitter (@jrfarr) or you’re subscribed to my RSS Feed because you don’t want to miss this.