Blog posts with pictures can do better than those with out. Not just the ones that appear at the top but also ones used to demonstrate a point or to illustrate an instructional post. However have you given any thought to the names you give your images?
A quick lesson in HTML
When it comes to adding pictures to a web page, you are supposed to use CSS. That does not work on dynamic pages, WordPress is a good example. So to get images to appear we use
<img src="imagename.png" alt="description-of-image" title="extra info">
The ‘alt’ part is used to provide useful text for browsers that do not render images, like ones for the blind, some can read out loud. The ‘title’ part is for extra information.
Give some thought to your picture names
There are three very good reasons for giving thought to the names of your pictures.
Reason 1, WordPress
How often have you reused a picture? How long did it take you to find it? By naming your picture with words that have meaning to the blog post, you can find them quicker in the search function.
Reason 2, Google Image search
Use words in the picture title that are meaningful to the blog post. Take for example a picture of a fishing rod, why not name it, ‘fishing-rod-carbon-fibre.png‘. Sounds much better than, ‘picture-001.png’. It is also related to the blog post about fishing, when a Google Image search for fishing rods is performed, you are more likely to be seen higher up in the results.
Reason 3, relevancy
In my previous posts about relevancy, I discussed how blog posts can be linked in such a way to show that they are related, something Google is very keen on. This can also be done with images.
As mentioned in point 2, name the picture relevant to the theme of the post. The ‘alt’ tag should be a description, not just a word or two. The title tag should also contain relevant words to the post. When Google index’s your page, it will find the image and relevant words useful to image search. Also, useful to demonstrate relevancy and improve your standing in search results.
Naming your image
Don’t be scared to use a long name, use dashes to separate words (Google will then take them as separate, it will join words with underscores). Always ensure you have permission to use stock photos but unless specified, rename them. Spending a few minutes thinking about the image name will be worth it!
It is also a good opportunity to put on your copyright or a unique name to find others using your artwork!!!
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