Image Optimization SEO, Naming Your Images for Better Google Image Search Ranking

Most people throw up a picture in their web article or blog post without much thought. Yet they spend a lot of time making sure their text has all the right key words to rank well in Google.

The fact is, many people use the image search function in Google and other search engines. So you want to try to get your image found on the first page of image search.

Most people know about using the title tag and alt tag for image SEO. But they totally forget about the name of the image itself! Naming the image the key words your hoping to rank for is crucial to ranking high and great image optimization SEO.

So just what is the best way to name an image? Remember, Google reads an image name just the way it's spelled. Let's say your writing an article about pink leather jackets.

Instead of using something like IMG123.jpg, renaming it jacket.jpg is better. But that's just the start, you want to get detailed about it. So let's say you name it leatherjacket.jpg for your image optimization SEO.

The problem with that word is, it's all one long word, so Google sees it as one word. So, you have to break it up as two words. BUT, you can't include spaces in an image name.

If you do many browsers will have a hard time reading it. The way to break up words within an image name is using break lines like this: leather-jacket.jpg or lower break like this: leather_jacket.jpg.

NOW google can see the image is named leather jacket, and will rank it higher for that key word than just IMG123.jpg. But you want to put every detail into it for maximum image optimization SEO.

Since the article is about pink leather jackets, you should call it pink-leather-jackets.jpg. To be on the safe side, I also make a number the last thing, in case Google sees the last word as part of the .jpg.

Like this: pink-leather-jackets-1.jpg see? Also if you have many images of pink leather jackets, you can name them all the same and just change the number each time.

Since pink jackets are for women, well most of the time, I would complete it and name it womens-pink-leather-jackets-1.jpg. Also, different people may use different names for women.

So if I had two images, I would name the next one ladies-pink-leather-jackets-1.jpg see? That really expands your image optimization SEO.

By doing this, say someone else and you has an image, both of you using a title tag of "jackets" and an alt tag of "pink leather jackets".

But the other person's image name is DE46.jpg. Your image is named womens-pink-leather-jackets-1.jpg. I promise you, your image will rank higher than the other one!

So that's one way to get great Google image search ranking. In fact I find mine all the time in the #1 position for my key words and get thousands of image search hits a day. Hope you enjoyed this image optimization SEO lesson!

Source: SEO Tips