SEO Basics: Images
If you are wondering why your images are not appearing in image searches for your favorite search engine, take a close look at the meta data for your image.
If your meta data looks something like this:
<img src="/files/images/i2345.jpg" alt="image">
You may want to make a few changes.
The first thing to consider would be the file itself. Use a descriptive file name if possible. Instead of i2345.jpg use blue_cat_under_green_table.jpg. Once you have uploaded your image, leave it be. Do not move or change your files. The Google image bot indexes at a much slower rate than the text bot. Thus, once your image gets indexed you'll want to keep it there.
Next you'll want to have good alt tags. In Drupal, make sure to enable custom alt text for your image fields. This option is found in the field configurations for the content type.
For the Alt tag, describe the image as if you were talking to a blind person. Include the context of how the image applies to the content it appears with.
Example: blue tabby cat plays under wooden green garden table austin, tx.
Beware of keyword "stuffing" by entering unrelated or too general keywords, you are likely to harm your SEO or be perceived as spam. Use a similar description for the title, but keep this one short as it will also appear over the image on mouse-over. The surrounding text should also include a detailed description of the image, or use captions wherever possible.
Be sure to include the height and width attributes and you are done.
Your finished code should look something like this:
<img src="http://example.com/files/images/blue_cat_under_green_table.jpg"
alt="blue tabby cat plays under wooden green garden table austin, tx" width="400"
height="340" /> Don't be alarmed if your image does not appear within a few days. Keep checking back every month or so, and make small adjustments with keywords or content to get the results you are looking for.
Comments
I noticed you used the full path
Does using the full path rather than the relative path in your images help any when optimizing for images?
Also, if your images that are part of link ads be indexed?
Curious minds want to know!
More about images
I usually recommend using against full paths for anything linked within your own site. This increases the risk of broken links if things change down the road and does not affect SEO.
What's more important is that the name of the file is descriptive of the image and the URL within the site uses some context. Using path auto to create your URLs based on your node titles are almost always a good idea. Appending good descriptive content types into the URL also helps.
Don't forget that the text immediately surrounding your image is just as important if not more so than the meta data for the image itself. Use captions and embed related images into content bodies where possible.
I believe that images in link ads and other served ads are not indexed as "belonging" to your site. But I would need to do a bit more digging to find that out for sure.
Kelly
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