Chances are, if you have a website, that you already have at least a couple photos added to it. Perhaps you added them to the site for enhancement, to capture the attention of drive-by readers, or to help tell your story. These are all very good reasons to have photos.
However, are you aware that your photos are capable of driving new and unexpected traffic to you, simply by sitting on your website? Amazingly, not everyone knows this little secret.
You might be surprised to learn that photos on your website can be working for you, even in your sleep. The key word here is ‘can’. Simply placing photos on your site isn’t quite enough. You have to take the extra steps to get them to work for you.
Finding the Right Photos
The first step to tackle is finding, or taking the right photos. You might choose to use stock photos, which can be found on numerous sites. Or, you might want to use your own. With a little professional digital photo retouching, you could have the ideal shot. Either way, finding relevant photos is a must.
It can be challenging to find several, high quality, and relevant photos. But, not impossible by any means. You need to choose photos that will enhance the product, or service you are selling, or the message you are trying to convey to your audience.
For example, if you are a dentist, or have an auto detailing service, before and after shots are ideal to show off your work. On the other hand, if you sell dental products, or own a car dealership, then photos of the products work well, and multiple shots for each product.
Photos for a message can have a creative edge, as long as they are relevant. If you are writing about travel, try getting some shots of:
- An airplane
- A beach
- Luggage
- A passport
- A hotel
- A map
- A Highway
The idea is to have several photos, but make sure they all relate to your website, or article. If you run out of ideas, just ask people what comes to their mind when they think of your particular topic. I have done that quite often, and find it to be a great source of information.
How a Search Engine for Images will Find Your Photos
Search engine for images, such as Google Images, works by grabbing photos on the web, and hosts them for those who are seeking to find particular images.
The person looking for an image is guided to relevant images based on the filenames, along with a link text and text adjacent of the available images. When a person clicks on an image, they view a thumbnail of that image, which is hovering over the website of that image’s owner.
I have a curious mind, so I have looked for photos of various topics, just to see what the images will lead to, and I’ve been impressed with the quality of both the photos and the websites.
Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Google’s Search Product and User Experience, stated at a recent conference in San Francisco that Google Images experiences over 1 billion page views per day for Google. There are a lot of people searching for images, and some of them can be looking for yours.
Getting Your Images Ranked
In order to get your photos ranked, so that they are more visible to potential customers, there are a few steps that you need to take. Quite often these are overlooked, even by the more seasoned webmasters. By taking these steps, you could easily have the upper hand over the competitor.
First step is changing the file name. If you have a digital camera, you have probably noticed that each image is automatically given a random file name, such as IMG_154, or 546466.jpg. When a person searches for an image, it will be with specific words, rather than a rambling set of numbers and letters.
So, what I make sure to do for my own, is change the file name to something pertinent to the topic I’m either trying to sell, or the message I am trying to get across. This is quite easy to do.
For example, if you were discussing ‘free tutorials for Photoshop’, I would suggest changing the file name to ‘Photoshop’, ‘tutorials_Photoshop’, or ‘free_photo_tutorials’. People who are keying in those words into the search box could then be directed to your photos… and your website as well.
The next step would be to give each image a relevant alt tag. These tags are also used by search engine spiders to snare images. Alt tags are the HTML descriptions you can place on photos, so they will be picked up. Just as with the file name, use relevant words, and keep it short and succinct.
Finally, when utilizing a content management system to upload your photos, such as WordPress, add a brief description to each image. This description should be short and to the point as well.
I can’t stress enough the importance of taking these steps, and how it’s an easy way to direct new traffic to your site.
Seeing the Big Picture
This is a service that takes relatively little time and money, compared to what it can do for your website. Tap into it, and in a big way.
Place as many high quality photos on your website, as it will allow you to do. Tag them with proper and relevant file names, alt tags, and descriptions, and you will see more traffic flowing in, seeing what you have to offer.
Hopefully I have inspired you to give it a try, because it works.
James Martell is an Internet Entrepreneur and Affiliate Marketer, who is self-taught. He and his wife Arlene enjoy sharing their secrets to success with others through various avenues such as ebooks, online training, podcasts, and affiliate marketing webinars. James has also spoken in several venues, such as Affiliate Summit, Commission Junction University, and more. Married for 27 years, the Martell’s reside in Vancouver, and enjoy spending time with their children.
