How To Optimize Your Images For Image Search

Garrett · #1 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 02:15 PM

Do the images on your website appear in Google's image search? If you're selling products they should. If you have pictures of yourself on your site those should appear in Google's (and Yahoo's) image search too.

EGOL, a poster in the SEOChat forum, claimed he got over 5000 click throughs one month from the Google image search. He also claims that "you can promote some products better in google images than you can in the SERPs," and goes on to suggest that you, "pick a good image that represents your product well.

This article will address some image optimization techniques so your images will rank well in the popular image searches with examples from forums and my own excruciating personal experience.

One obvious tactic is alt tag text optimization. Make these descriptive and include the keyword that you want the image found for. Some forum members suggested that putting the images in html files named after the keyword (keyword.html), putting the keyword in the title as well as your H1 tags on the page where the image appears could improve the ranking of your images in the image search.

Jtatcu of the JimWorld forum said that besides "having the alt tag describing the picture, you should name the picture under the keyword you want it to be found, i.e. a picture of a car should be nissan-maxima.gif with the alt tag being Nissan Maxima." I found evidence of this too.

Be specific in your alt description - if you're selling blenders and have pictures on your site label them with their actual product names. (This has the added benefit of showing descriptive text if a visitor's browser doesn't show your images.)

One poster indicated that alt text that she optimized for the seeing impared hindered her optimization for image searches (perhaps because they, by necessity, included natural language that gums up ranking).

Kusadasi-Guy, an SEOChat member, suggested that she "use [the] thumbnail system, [and] put each image into separate html pages."

If your search term is relatively uncompetitive, there's a good chance that simple on page text could raise your image to the top of the image search. For (one excruciating) example, if you search Rafael Robinson" (quotes or not) then the top two images that appear are from pictures from a photoshop contest in WebProWorld.

This same search in Yahoo shows my horrific photoshopped image in the third position.

Rafael Robinson, my co-worker and "good buddy," got up early before work one morning to put my head on the body of Fat Bastard, a grotesque character from the second and third Austin Powers movies. (And that's what really bothers me - that he got up early to make that image. He also does all my special pictures in the WebProNews issues.) He's tickled to death that his hard work shows up when you search his name.

Notice that on the forum page Rafael's name is bold, which may lend a bit of weight to the term in the algorithms.

It's also important to notice that Google picked up the picture above his name too. I'm not sure what the proper distance should be, though it's clear that if your images are too close together the Google image search may assume that surrounding images are related to a given term. (Has anyone tested this?)

Yahoo image search only showed the Fat Bastard image, leaving out the Garrett as Picard picture. This indicates that the Yahoo image bot may only look below the text.

The Garrett-as-Fat-Bastard image also shows up first if you search "Fat Bastard," which indicates the power of naming .jpgs after the term you want to have showing up for your search terms. (Its url: http://images.ientrymail.com/designn...at-bastard.jpg.)

For the Fat Bastard search in Yahoo images my picture comes up 11th, with actual images from the Austin Powers movies coming above.

To me this indicates Yahoo's image search for this term is more relevant than Google's, as your average user who searches for "Fat Bastard" in an image search most likely isn't interested in a photoshopped image of me.

Rafael, however, feels the Google results are "far better" for the "Fat Bastard" search.

Rafael's picture doesn't show up in a Google or Yahoo "Rafael Robinson" search, but it does show when you search "RafaelRobinson." (Google:: Yahoo)

This image never appeared near the text of his full name - Rafael Robinson, indicating that to optimize your images for multiple search terms you should put in dashes (- my fat bastard picture ends with fat-bastard.jpg, and ranks #1 in Google for "fat bastard").

Special thanks to Rafael for pointing out where my image ranked in Google for a search on his name, and thanks to Barry at SEORoundtable for inspiring this article.

AussieWebmaster · #2 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 04:16 PM

It's funny after image optimization will come catalog optimzation then blog.. then god knows forums, etc...

What a Brave New World we live and work in!!!

Garrett · #3 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 04:45 PM

Hey Aussie,

You'll love tomorrow's WPN feature article (forum optimization :)

AussieWebmaster · #4 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garrett

Hey Aussie,

You'll love tomorrow's WPN feature article (forum optimization :)

No Way!!!!!!!

jaca · #5 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 09:23 PM

Hi Garrett,

I really enjoyed your posting, and learned a great deal from it.

My question is, don't you think that this Google image search just makes it easier for people to steal your image(s)? I think it is a great idea to be listed, especially to showcase your work and drive traffic to your site. Of course you can do watermarks and disable the right click, but there are so many other ways people can copy an image. Have you read anything about this concern?

BTW, love your Fast Bastered picture ;-)

Jan

AussieWebmaster · #6 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 09:38 PM

One is a marketing perspective: images can help drive traffic and since not very known will be good for awhile.
Yours is a copyright concern... one that is never ending with the web... though there are encryption programs being refined right now that will help and also help you track the offenders...

jaca · #7 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 09:41 PM

Hi Aussie,

I agree with you on both counts. Yes it will drive traffic to the site and certainly if you do photography or manipulation this will be a big bonus. But yes, we have to somehow protect copyright and I wonder if Google has considered that.

Jan

crashingflwrgrl · #8 (**permalink**) 05-13-2004, 07:27 PM

Isn't there a service that can notify you if someone uses your "word" or trademark? Don't think this would work for an image though.

AussieWebmaster · #9 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaca

Hi Aussie,

I agree with you on both counts. Yes it will drive traffic to the site and certainly if you do photography or manipulation this will be a big bonus. But yes, we have to somehow protect copyright and I wonder if Google has considered that.

Jan

It is not really their responsibility to cover copyright... though they have worked with trademarks to a point so am sure it is a consideration... maybe the need to consider recording info of site location helps when people contest usage

yeshua14 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 02:55 PM

From a merchant perspective, would a separate website with "optomized" images, that if clicked on went to your website with the shopping cart be something to develop?

Stephen

flashfast · #11 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 09:45 PM

My strange story about image optimisation.

Firstly, I regard myself as a google search for image addict. I've been at it for years as my site is rich in graphics, and thousands of visitors a month come through that route.

But recently, with the changes in google, i decided to optimise even more by placing a descriptive and informative passage of text about the image (e'g the mating habits of the Gwondalaland Tit Mouse:), and see if this would affect my rankings in google images. I hadn't been too worried about image optimisation anyway as I already saw no decline when google changed it's text based search method. It was more of an experiment to see if i could get further up the image search ladder.

That was about 3 weeks ago. The new optimised images haven't even appeared on Google yet, but...Yegods! I checked my google stats yesterday. It seems that google text search had picked up the new image pages and my rankings for one went from nowhere to Number 1 (for a very popular search term) and many other to the top ten. As a result visits have increased enormously.

A strange google world, but it makes me think that google places brownie points on having images (large sized?) relevant to some descriptive text in a search? Who knows, but I am rushing to do similar pages in similar formats and see what higher perches I can land on. I'm also eager to see when and if my images climb the image searches as well.

Kusadasi-Guy · #12 (**permalink**) 05-15-2004, 01:54 PM

Hi all;

I have read my mails and noticed that Garrett is mentioning about one of my post this morning;

Quote:

Kusadasi-Guy, an SEOChat member, suggested that she "use [the] thumbnail system, [and] put each image into separate html pages."

And few minutes ago, i have uploaded my new picture gallery and would like to share some techniques with WebProWorld's community.
Here is the URL:
http://www.kusadasi.biz/kusadasi-pictures.asp

Quote:

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>
function popUp(theURL,h,w,name,features)
{
var newWindow;
var s = "HEIGHT=" + h + ",WIDTH=" + w + features;
newWindow = window.open(theURL,name,s);
newWindow.focus();
}
</SCRIPT>

Quote:

< A
onclick= "javascript: popUp ('pictures/2004-gallery/mixed/your-keywords.htm', 600, 640, 'new'); return false"
href= "/pictures/2004-gallery/mixed/your-keywords.htm">< IMG src = "pictures/2004-gallery/mixed/keywords.jpg" width="75" height="56" border = 1>< BR >
Anchor Text#1< / A >

This is a simple Thumbnail System and now i can create my small html files with unique title tags, meta tags, alt attr. and some p tags. And i believe this is a powerful gallery.

Hope this post is useful for every member of the WebProWorld.

Kusadasi-Guy

RammerJammer · #13 (**permalink**) 05-17-2004, 12:37 PM

I have found this discussion very interesting.

My website (http://apache-warrior.motorcyclecity.net) is top ranked in Google for my chosen keywords and I even have a pictures page on my site.

I have ALTed my images, used descriptive text, and keywords in the filenames.

Yet I get the "Your search did not match any documents." response in Google's Image Search.

Does anyone know what the problem would be?

Kusadasi-Guy · #14 (**permalink**) 05-17-2004, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RammerJammer

I have found this discussion very interesting.

My website (http://apache-warrior.motorcyclecity.net) is top ranked in Google for my chosen keywords and I even have a pictures page on my site.

I have ALTed my images, used descriptive text, and keywords in the filenames.

Yet I get the "Your search did not match any documents." response in Google's Image Search.

Does anyone know what the problem would be?

Hi, image size are also important. Whats the dimensions of your images?

RammerJammer · #15 (**permalink**) 05-17-2004, 07:46 PM

I have graphics of various sizes from thumbnails to full page.

DaButcher · #16 (**permalink**) 08-06-2004, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaca

My question is, don't you think that this Google image search just makes it easier for people to steal your image(s)?
Jan

This response is a bit late, but I actually became a member (now), to answer you.

This is a dilemma; If you upload pictures on the web, someone might steal them.

If you dont upload them, noone can steal them, but then also noone can see them.

eg. If you are scared that someone will steal your images, the sollution is not to remove them from the google listing, but it's to watermark them or not put them on the web at all.

You might also hide some things from "guests", by making a login system for your regular users.

If you make your website with a programming language, you can make a system that stores all your images in a database, then you make a script that makes a watermark on the picture and displays that temp. picture to the user.

This system will make some system load, but unless you have millions of of hits per hour, like I guess noone on this forum has, I dont think that extra system load will affect your server.

My system, I programmed so that the watermarked image is all that the users see, but I didnt replace the original image that my users upload.

eg. I keep the original image, make a watermark temp. image which is then destroyed when the session times-out.

You could also replace the original image with a watermark image and keep a backup of the original image (without watermark).

Programming languages, like PHP for example, have powerfull image-editing functions. You can put a transparent gif on-top of another image, careless if it's gif, jpg, etc.

DaButcher · #17 (**permalink**) 08-06-2004, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crashingflwrgrl

Isn't there a service that can notify you if someone uses your "word" or trademark? Don't think this would work for an image though.

If you have a copyright notice on your images/design, you can contact the hosting-firm that the offender is hosting your files on.

I meerly put my url on the images, I dont put "copyright". I have a copyright notice on the site though.

jaca · #18 (**permalink**) 08-06-2004, 12:48 PM

DaButcher is great that you joined the forum. This is a wonderful place to learn and share.

You are right about the watermarks. I have done this for a client as her art is her business, but I didn't do that with my own images on my site.

Thanks for the response, and it's never too late!

Jan

google junky · #19 (**permalink**) 08-07-2004, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaca

My question is, don't you think that this Google image search just makes it easier for people to steal your image(s)? I think it is a great idea to be listed, especially to showcase your work and drive traffic to your site. Of course you can do watermarks and disable the right click, but there are so many other ways people can copy an image. Have you read anything about this concern?
Jan

I use the CHImageGuard php script from http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive...ctimages.shtml

You are able to allow only certain domains and subdomains if you like to show your images. Additionally the image can be set to produce nothing or a one selected image to replace the one a person tries to use,such as a banner as a replacement.
We use this on our e-commerce website to protect our product pictures. We did allow images.google.com to use the images but elsewhere do not allow them. Also the url to the images is masked so the person trying to link to the image wil fail miserably.

Hope this helps and if you are able to use php on your site then this topic is pretty much done.

jaca · #20 (**permalink**) 08-07-2004, 09:22 PM

What a terrific resource GJ. This is one that others definately should know about. I am sure I am not the only one who is worried for myself, but also have clients that they need to protect.

Thanks so much, and welcome to WebProWorld, I see you new here...you will love it!

Jan

coder · #21 (**permalink**) 08-17-2004, 03:15 PM

A couple more questions for this topic.

How long does it take to be indexed by yahoo and google for the image search?

Does it make a difference if the image are in the root file or sub-folders?

I've scene images being listed by just having alt tags, others by just image name. So the best solution would be image name and alt tag to be the keyword?

Also does page rank matter for image search? What are the stipulations for being ranked higher in the image search?

Does file size matter? jpg vs. gif which is better?

google junky · #22 (**permalink**) 08-17-2004, 05:28 PM

In the order of relevancy

1. Image search doesn't like images using Underscores as in web_logo.jpg . Instead use web-logo.jpg. Naturally, using the exact keyword/phrase
2. domain/page (named with keywords)that the image resides on
3. I am not sure about ALT tags being a big issue in the image search. You sure would think that you would have to work a little harder and have to add an ALT tag. I did check on top results for images and most didn't have alt tags with the image.

------------------------------------
I do not know how long it takes to get listed in the images directory. I do know that they still have images listed from a clients site of images that haven't existed for 4 months.

To be listed at all but not necessarily at the top. A search word/phrase being near an image will get it listed. No alt tag needed nor does the image have to be named anything special.

I have no information for you about Yahoo. Even though my clients rank high on yahoo, I won't waste my time trying to figure them out. They still seem to have an identity complex with what a good search should be.

P.S. Read Garretts first post here. It had some very interesting things explained in it. Ther are others who actually may have investigated this deeper than I have.

coder · #23 (**permalink**) 08-18-2004, 03:45 PM

I've read and re-read this entire thread, I guess what I don't understand is why none of the photos on our sites are being listed.

Can anyone see any reason why the photos on this page are not listed under the image search for fireworks?
http://www.fireworks.com/contest/view_list.asp

Some of these photos have been there for 5 months

DisasterMan · #24 (**permalink**) 08-20-2004, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaButcher

Programming languages, like PHP for example, have powerfull image-editing functions. You can put a transparent gif on-top of another image, careless if it's gif, jpg, etc.

Please please please tell us how and give a sample php script! That is such a cool function, and to not have to go back and re-edit or upload the images would be such a blessing (especially for people with massive galleries!)
At least tell me the php function name, and the I will go and do the research myself...

Now I just want an easy way to watermark (or Ident MTV et al. style) my videos - it sucks re-rendering everything and re-uploading videos is always a chore, even with FTP soft like filezilla that does multiple simultaneous uploads and upload resuming...
But then, that is not exactly a realistic request!!

I have been hacking away with PHP for around a year now, and am very intrigued by it's image processing capabilities, but have not investigated further due to the time it takes reading and developing. A couple of tips and pointers would make it so worthwhile.

Kind Regards
DisasterMan

google junky · #25 (**permalink**) 08-22-2004, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DisasterMan

Please please please tell us how and give a sample php script!

I did some searching for you. Hope this works for you.
You might try here http://coppermine.sourceforge.net/

It uses MySql,Choice of GD(maybe gd2 not sure) or ImageMagik, and PHP

Deep13 · #26 (**permalink**) 08-24-2004, 02:13 AM

Hi,
To be frank this image optimization thing doesnt work for me at all..

for keyword Rakhi Gifts our site http://shaadi.tolshop.com/v1/rakhi/gifts.php is listed on position 2, images have the alt tags with product/category names but none of the images show in the google image sarch..

any ideas about it?

Thanks
Deep

flashfast · #27 (**permalink**) 08-24-2004, 03:04 AM

A quick look - none of your images have keyword names - such as bangle, bracelet, diamond etc etc.

Also I read in a previous post that google images don't like underscores such as in '960_subcat.jpg'.

Seems a lot of work but for what you are selling you have an opportunity there for a lot of keyword usage.

By the way, I love your site - clean and the images are very well done.

J

http://www.flashfast.com

Deep13 · #28 (**permalink**) 08-24-2004, 04:38 AM

thanks flashfast for the compliment but the thing is it wont be possible to change the image names because the names and images are coming from the database and now i dont think it will be possible for us to change image names of all the products so i will have to findout the way to optimize with current situation :(

anyways if anyone knows then please let me know..
Regards
Deep

flashfast · #29 (**permalink**) 08-24-2004, 06:22 PM

I figured that might be the case. What about doing a page "Featured Products' that is meant solely for the search engines? You could name each image google specific e.g. dimaondbracelet.jpg with a short description.

Not sure if u can do this but I'm sure there's a way. I also think that, considering you have appealiong graphics, a user will be more likely to click on them amongst so many others in a google image search.

Good luck.

Deep13 · #30 (**permalink**) 08-25-2004, 01:23 AM

Hey thanks for the tip..
gonna give it a try soon..

Deep

DaButcher · #31 (**permalink**) 09-03-2004, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DisasterMan

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaButcher

Programming languages, like PHP for example, have powerfull image-editing functions. You can put a transparent gif on-top of another image, careless if it's gif, jpg, etc.

Please please please tell us how and give a sample php script! That is such a cool function, and to not have to go back and re-edit or upload the images would be such a blessing (especially for people with massive galleries!)
At least tell me the php function name, and the I will go and do the research myself...

Now I just want an easy way to watermark (or Ident MTV et al. style) my videos - it sucks re-rendering everything and re-uploading videos is always a chore, even with FTP soft like filezilla that does multiple simultaneous uploads and upload resuming...
But then, that is not exactly a realistic request!!

I have been hacking away with PHP for around a year now, and am very intrigued by it's image processing capabilities, but have not investigated further due to the time it takes reading and developing. A couple of tips and pointers would make it so worthwhile.

Kind Regards
DisasterMan

Ok, here is how I do it:

First, you need a system that stores the URL to your images, in the database!

In a .php file, where you loop the recordset, you simply call the script to show the images.

Put this in the recordset loop:
echo "
<img src=\"path/to/your/script/_merge.php?bilde1={$row[bilde_bilde]}\" alt=\"{$row[bilde_tittel]}\" />";

Make the file _merge.php

Fill it with this:

<?php

// path to your images! Only change path, not the variable name!
$bilde1 = "./path/to/images/" . $bilde1; //SOURCE IMAGE

$bilde2 = "./path/to/watermark/watermark.gif"; //WATERMARK
$bilde3 = "./bilder/blah.jpg"; //DESTINATION IMAGE

mergePix($bilde1, $bilde2, $bilde3, "3", "50");

//$sourcefile = Filename of the picture into that $insertfile will be inserted.
//$insertfile = Filename of the picture that is to be inserted into $sourcefile.
//$targetfile = Filename of the modified picture.
//$transition = Intensity of the transition (in percent)
//$pos = Position where $insertfile will be inserted in $sourcefile
// 0 = middle
// 1 = top left
// 2 = top right
// 3 = bottom right
// 4 = bottom left
// 5 = top middle
// 6 = middle right
// 7 = bottom middle
// 8 = middle left
//
//
function mergePix($sourcefile,$insertfile, $targetfile, $pos=0,$transition=50)
{

if (is_file($sourcefile))
{
//Get the resource id´s of the pictures
// $insertfile_id = imageCreateFromJPEG($insertfile);
$insertfile_id = imageCreateFromGIF($insertfile);
$sourcefile_id = imageCreateFromJPEG($sourcefile);

//Get the sizes of both pix
$sourcefile_width=imageSX($sourcefile_id);
$sourcefile_height=imageSY($sourcefile_id);
$insertfile_width=imageSX($insertfile_id);
$insertfile_height=imageSY($insertfile_id);

//middle
if( $pos == 0 )
{
$dest_x = ( $sourcefile_width / 2 ) - ( $insertfile_width / 2 );
$dest_y = ( $sourcefile_height / 2 ) - ( $insertfile_height / 2 );
}

//top left
if( $pos == 1 )
{
$dest_x = 0;
$dest_y = 0;
}

//top right
if( $pos == 2 )
{
$dest_x = $sourcefile_width - $insertfile_width;
$dest_y = 0;
}

//bottom right
if( $pos == 3 )
{
$dest_x = $sourcefile_width - $insertfile_width;
$dest_y = $sourcefile_height - $insertfile_height;
}

//bottom left
if( $pos == 4 )
{
$dest_x = 0;
$dest_y = $sourcefile_height - $insertfile_height;
}

//top middle
if( $pos == 5 )
{
$dest_x = ( ( $sourcefile_width - $insertfile_width ) / 2 );
$dest_y = 0;
}

//middle right
if( $pos == 6 )
{
$dest_x = $sourcefile_width - $insertfile_width;
$dest_y = ( $sourcefile_height / 2 ) - ( $insertfile_height / 2 );
}

//bottom middle
if( $pos == 7 )
{
$dest_x = ( ( $sourcefile_width - $insertfile_width ) / 2 );
$dest_y = $sourcefile_height - $insertfile_height;
}

//middle left
if( $pos == 8 )
{
$dest_x = 0;
$dest_y = ( $sourcefile_height / 2 ) - ( $insertfile_height / 2 );
}

//The main thing : merge the two pix
imageCopyMerge($sourcefile_id, $insertfile_id,$dest_x,$dest_y,0,0,$insertfile_wid th,$insertfile_height,$transition);

//Create a jpeg out of the modified picture
// imagejpeg ($sourcefile_id,"$targetfile");

Header( "Content-type: image/jpeg");
ImageJPEG($sourcefile_id);
}
}
?>

This function may require modifications if you let your users upload other than .jpg files.

I only let them upload .jpg, so I dont need alot of code checking if it's jpg or gif.

I here put a .gif image on top of .jpg, with 50% opacity and shows in the bottom, right side.

This is my watermark:
http://www.volvo-power.net/sql/phpPi...vopowernet.gif

I see that a faded bg in the watermark helps make contrast on most images, no matter what color they are.

grey bg on image, w/ watermark:
http://www.volvo-power.net/sql/phpPi...1092950986.jpg

black:
http://www.volvo-power.net/sql/phpPi...1091374151.jpg

brown and grey:
http://www.volvo-power.net/sql/phpPi...1=DSC02487.jpg

its very important that you control what your users upload!! this is why I dont bother to control too much in this script, since I know it's only images.

I've also made functions for making thumbnails on upload, functions for my members so they can resize images, etc. via webinterface.

this function does not replace the original images w. watermarked ones.

sfowler · #32 (**permalink**) 09-03-2004, 09:02 AM

I use a number of images on different websites, and just remote link them instead of having the images on each domain, partly because two of the servers have limited bandwidth. Is this going to boost the sites hosting the images, or do anything for the Google image search results? I have noticed theat some of these images are appearing near the top on the image search, but it could be a coincidence.

DaButcher · #33 (**permalink**) 09-03-2004, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfowler

I use a number of images on different websites, and just remote link them instead of having the images on each domain, partly because two of the servers have limited bandwidth. Is this going to boost the sites hosting the images, or do anything for the Google image search results? I have noticed theat some of these images are appearing near the top on the image search, but it could be a coincidence.

Dont ever ever remote-link images and use a php script which uses them! you will experience timeouts, etc. which will slow your entire site down!!

a script like this would also make your server download the images each time, if you where to use image manipulation.

Also remote linking is not good, as your page will seem not so professional.

I would buy a better hosting-package..
You get fairly cheap php/mysql packages "everywhere".
I have 5gb on my hosting, unlimited bw, etc. but I have custom hosting plan :)

google junky · #34 (**permalink**) 09-03-2004, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaButcher

Dont ever ever remote-link images and use a php script which uses them! you will experience timeouts, etc. which will slow your entire site down!!

If the sites are on the same server then downtime isn't a separated issue between them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaButcher

Also remote linking is not good, as your page will seem not so professional.

Honestly, I don't think your average web visitor pays attention to where you images come from. IMO Only web designers would pay attention that close. I'm not sure why you would want to FTP the same image to 2 or 3 different sites.

sfowler · #35 (**permalink**) 09-03-2004, 12:06 PM

They are all on good servers, so that is not a problem. You don't see any difference in loading. Anyway, that was not the question!

google junky · #36 (**permalink**) 09-03-2004, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfowler

I use a number of images on different websites, and just remote link them instead of having the images on each domain, partly because two of the servers have limited bandwidth. Is this going to boost the sites hosting the images, or do anything for the Google image search results? I have noticed theat some of these images are appearing near the top on the image search, but it could be a coincidence.

I'm not sure there is much of a benefit from linking to images on another site. Possibly if the url being used has keyword content it could improve the keyword density of the page. If the image is near keywords in the text of the page then that is a benefit. It actually promotes the originating site that the image is on as far as the image search is concerned.

sfowler · #37 (**permalink**) 09-05-2004, 03:59 PM

Thanks, that is what I was asking. It also confirms what I am seeing.

DaButcher · #38 (**permalink**) 09-07-2004, 05:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deep13

thanks flashfast for the compliment but the thing is it wont be possible to change the image names because the names and images are coming from the database and now i dont think it will be possible for us to change image names of all the products so i will have to findout the way to optimize with current situation :(

anyways if anyone knows then please let me know..
Regards
Deep

I guess you have different fields in the table for the images, like [title], [description], etc.

Then you can parse the title or the description into the filename, if you use a php script to retrieve images.

eg. put this in your recordset loop
echo "<img src=\"path/to/script.php?picture={$row['picture_id']}&description={$row['picture_desc']}\" />";

I guess you already have the script.php file, for parsing out images.

katiab · #39 (**permalink**) 09-07-2004, 08:05 PM

Hi,

I sell a lot of artwork, posters, photos, paintings... and would love to have each image appear in the Image Search but the whole site is built on a shopping cart. I have the images available in the images folder but it would be crazy for me to create a static site for each image just to show on the image search. Is there a way around it? Can Googlew see images on a shopping cart? I doubt it very much... please help. I am having a difficult time getting good exposure, and the artwork is fabulous.

Thanks for any help!

Have a nice day,

Katia Bordy
INTERNATIONAL ROOTS COMPANY, INC.
RARE COLLECTIBLES ART GALLERY
Tel: 954-458-1557 - info@internationalrootscompany.com
http://www.internationalrootscompany.com

google junky · #40 (**permalink**) 09-08-2004, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by katiab

Hi,

I sell a lot of artwork, posters, photos, paintings... and would love to have each image appear in the Image Search but the whole site is built on a shopping cart. I have the images available in the images folder but it would be crazy for me to create a static site for each image just to show on the image search. Is there a way around it? Can Googlew see images on a shopping cart? I doubt it very much... please help. I am having a difficult time getting good exposure, and the artwork is fabulous.

You currently have 225 images in the image search.
Check it out here
Typing site:www.internationalrootscompany.com will show all the images you have in the image search.

1. Need alt tags (I understand that your shopping cart might not have this option)
2. Need image name more descriptive. (keywords) Use a dash rather than an underscore to seperate words.
3. I think you have this already - image title in plain text near the image.

katiab · #41 (**permalink**) 09-08-2004, 02:27 PM

Thank yolu very much for showing me that i have a lot of photos available.
It picks them up right from the shopping cart, so I guess the SE robots crowl into shopping carts?
I also see links to pages to the shopping cart. Do you know how that works.
I am not sure how the images made it to Google images, but what would I have to do to add other items there. I could boost it to thousands of photos if I could find a way to do so.

Thank you so much for all the direction!
I'm starting to really like this forum. Finally, I find the guidance I always searched for.
Thanks!!!!
_________________________________

Katia Bordy INTERNATIONAL ROOTS COMPANY, INC.
RARE COLLECTIBLES ART GALLERY
Tel: 954-458-1557 - info@internationalrootscompany.com
http://www.internationalrootscompany.com

Deep13 · #42 (**permalink**) 09-09-2004, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaButcher

I guess you have different fields in the table for the images, like [title], [description], etc.

Then you can parse the title or the description into the filename, if you use a php script to retrieve images.

eg. put this in your recordset loop

Code:

echo <img src=\"path/to/script.php?picture={$row['picture_id']}&description={$row['picture_desc']}\" />";

I guess you already have the script.php file, for parsing out images.

I think i have to stick to the current code but i have added few static pages with proper image names..i hope that helps :)

Regards
Deep

<mod edit to maintain intended code format>

Jade456 · #43 (**permalink**) 09-13-2004, 04:48 PM

Its funny that I was just checking my logs and see a few hits from image searches. I started getting them last month, not a lot but every little bit helps. Seems the alt tag text is the defining factor (or at least, helps quite a bit).

DaButcher · #44 (**permalink**) 11-25-2004, 10:25 AM

My brain just started.
I've been wondering why my page didnt get any imagesearches, except banners, etc.

Now my brain started!
I have the .htaccess, defined to no-follow in the directory where I dynamically generate the images for display! eg. google does not follow them, since I (for some strange reason) got paranoid about google crawling up my leg.

I think I'll have to change my .htaccess file and check if I get more results in the image-search.

ppayne · #45 (**permalink**) 12-16-2004, 11:16 PM

We placed our URLs in images for a while since we were getting ripped off from EVERYONE, being on the bleeding edge of stuff from Japan as we are. This caused problems with our eBay auctions so we switched it again, to something that identifies us properly but without the URL. I presume that's good for image search too.

hawkwind dave · #46 (**permalink**) 01-05-2005, 06:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by flashfast

Also I read in a previous post that google images don't like underscores such as in '960_subcat.jpg'.

I don't see this to be the case, I also understood that spaces, replaced with '%20' are not good either but having done an image seaarch for 'toy box', there's plenty of underscores in the results & plenty of '%20' spaces.

two penneth ;-)

Maverick4two · #47 (**permalink**) 08-02-2005, 12:29 PM

This is a gr

dougadam · #48 (**permalink**) 08-16-2005, 02:45 PM

Interesting marketing technique.

brian.mark · #49 (**permalink**) 08-16-2005, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfowler

I use a number of images on different websites, and just remote link them instead of having the images on each domain, partly because two of the servers have limited bandwidth. Is this going to boost the sites hosting the images, or do anything for the Google image search results? I have noticed theat some of these images are appearing near the top on the image search, but it could be a coincidence.

My experience shows that the more sites you have using an image, the more the "Image Rank" (similar to page rank, but I have no idea what to call it so I just coined that phrase on the fly) climbs and the more likely it'll rank for the alt text in image search. The logic is similar to PR in that if many sites use the image, it must be a popular image. This isn't anything that I've ever asked a Google engineer about, but it seems to work in practice and follows some of their normal ranking algo philosophy.

Has anyone else seen a benefit when other sites use an image within their pages?

Brian.

Alli · #50 (**permalink**) 08-21-2005, 03:01 PM

Thanks for the great post. I can see how this would be especially crucial for a graphic-oriented site?

I was wondering, do you know if there's any way to find out how many people are searching for particular images?

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