Watch a video on using images on your site.
When publishing images on the web, all our usual webmaster guidelines apply.
Because images are often copied by users, Google often finds multiple copies of the same image online. We use many different signals to identify the original source of the image, and you can help by providing us with as much information as you can. In addition, the information you give about an image tells us about its content and subject matter.
Don't embed text inside images - search engines generally won't be able to read it.
Tell us as much as you can about the image
Give your images detailed, informative filenames
The filename can give Google clues about the subject matter of the image. Try to make your filename a good description of the subject matter of the image. For example, my-new-black-kitten.jpg is a lot more informative than IMG00023.JPG. Descriptive filenames can also be useful to users: If we're unable to find suitable text in the page on which we found the image, we'll use the filename as the image's snippet in our search results.
Create great alt text
The alt attribute is used to describe the contents of an image file. It's important for several reasons:
* It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. We use this information to help determine the best image to return for a user's query.
* Many people—for example, users with visual impairments, or people using screen readers or who have low-bandwidth connections—may not be able to see images on web pages. Descriptive alt text provides these users with important information.
Not so good:
Better:
Best:
To be avoided
Filling alt attributes with keywords ("keyword stuffing") results in a negative user experience, and may cause your site to be perceived as spam. Instead, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. We recommend testing your content by using a text-only browser such as Lynx.
Anchor text
External anchor text (the text pages use to link to your site) reflects how other people view your pages. While typically webmasters can't control how other sites link to theirs, you can make sure that anchor text you use within your own site is useful, descriptive, and relevant. This improves the user experience and helps the user understand the link's destination. For example, you might link to a page of vacation photos like this: Photos of our June 2008 trip to Ireland.
Provide good context for your image
The page the image is on, and the content around the image (including any captions or image titles), provide search engines with important information about the subject matter of your image. For example, if you have a picture of a polar bear on a page about home-grown tomatoes, you'll be sending a confused message to the search engines about the subject matter of polarbear.jpg.
Wherever possible, it's a good idea to make sure that images are placed near the relevant text. In addition, we recommend providing good, descriptive titles and captions for your images.
Create a great user experience
* Good-quality photos appeal to users more than blurry, unclear images. In addition, other webmasters are much more likely to link to a good-quality image, which can increase visits to your site. Crisp, sharp images will also appear better in the thumbnail versions we display in our search results, and may therefore be more likely to be clicked on by users.
* Even if your image appears on several pages on your site, consider creating a standalone landing page for each image, where you can gather all its related information. If you do this, be sure to provide unique information - such as descriptive titles and captions - on each page.
* Not all users scroll to the bottom of a page, so consider putting your images high up on the page where it can be immediately seen.
* Think about whether you want people to share your images. If you prevent users from linking to images on your site, you'll prevent people from using your bandwidth, but you are also limiting the potential audience for your images and reducing their discoverability by search engines. Similarly, some people add copyright text or other information to their images. This won't impact your image's performance in search results, but again, you should think about the impact of this on your users.
* Consider structuring your directories so that similar images are saved together. For example, you might have one directory for thumbnails and another for full-size images; or you could create separate directories for each category of images (for example, you could create separate directories for Hawaii, Ghana, and Ireland under your Travel directory). If your site contains adult images, we recommend storing these in one or more directories separate from the rest of the images on your site.
With image search, just as with web search, our goal is to provide the best and most relevant search results to our users. Following the best practices listed above will increase the likelihood that your images will be returned in those search results.
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