Optimising Your Video And Images For Search Engines

In order to be recognised on major search engines including Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others, you have to utilise SEO, or search engine optimization, when creating web content. While many people are able to do this using keywords and phrases in their written content, they oftentimes forget to add keywords to their visual content.By not adding keywords to video, graphics, pictures, charts, and other images, you are missing out on a good opportunity for increased exposure on the Internet.TYPES OF IMAGE OPTIMISATIONThere are two types of image optimization that you can use in order to have your images picked up by web spiders that are looking for keywords. You should take advantage of both when optimizing your images:¥    HTML Attributes Ð When uploading an image or video, you will be asked to tag it with a name or phrase so it can be found easily in the code.Two popular tags to fill in are Alt Text and Alt Attribute. Alt Text is used to describe the image as is it loading onto the page. Alt Attribute is the description of the image when you move the cursor over it. Adding a keyword or phrase into these tags will help increase your web presence.Add a keyword to the Longdesc Attribute if possible. This tag is usually a URL that will take you to the longer description of the image located on another page.¥    File AttributesThe name of the image file is considered a file attribute. Many websites use thumbnail files to save room on a web page that has other images and content.  Users can oftentimes enlarge the image by clicking on it. As a result, they will be taken to another web page on the site. This page will also be noticed by web spiders if it is linked with a keyword.When naming files, try to keep the names simple and use only one keyword. Use hyphens instead of spaces so web spiders will include the entire title as a keyword.Use keywords sparingly so your website is not flagged as spam by search engines. Use one keyword for each image and try to tie them to the written content they are surrounded by. If you use the same keyword in your image that is found in the content, web spiders are more likely to pick up on both, which will increase your ranking. Always update keywords and make sure you are using the right ones to describe your goods and services.