Has anyone worked on Image SEO before? My UGC content platform used to do really well in Google Images, but lately, the image traffic has dropped a lot. I know about the technical stuff from Google’s developer docs, but I haven’t really paid much attention to image SEO until now. Any advice or recommendations?
My site actually gets more impressions from images than from regular web search, even though I only include a couple of images per post. These are movie images, so they are popular. I just keep it simple: use keywords in the file name, alt text, and title.
@ThreadTracker
Interesting! Do those impressions have click-through rates similar to your web traffic?
Lenox said:
@ThreadTracker
Interesting! Do those impressions have click-through rates similar to your web traffic?
Nope, the CTR on images is much lower.
Lenox said:
@ThreadTracker
Interesting! Do those impressions have click-through rates similar to your web traffic?
Nope, the CTR on images is much lower.
Yeah, same here. Although, at one point, 10% of my organic traffic used to come from images.
Why focus on Image SEO? In some cases, images do help, but what’s your goal here? Are you hoping image SEO will give you a free traffic boost?
Jordan said:
Why focus on Image SEO? In some cases, images do help, but what’s your goal here? Are you hoping image SEO will give you a free traffic boost?
Fair point. For me, it helps with user acquisition. I run a meme-based social platform, and people who find memes through image search might explore the platform further. They might contribute content, which brings ad revenue too.
@Lenox
Then it’s worth experimenting. Try placing images in tables, lists, and individual pages with text and proper meta descriptions. Take inspiration from Facebook—each image in their carousels has its own URL and metadata like ratings or reviews.
I know about the technical best practices from Google dev docs.
Just a heads-up: those are just the basics to get your site published. Following them isn’t really optimizing. If everyone is doing the same thing, you aren’t standing out.
@Jordan
Good point. I use IMGIX, so my images load fast, and everything technical is in place. But I wonder—do things like image backlinks, titles, and sizes really make a difference?
Lenox said:
@Jordan
Good point. I use IMGIX, so my images load fast, and everything technical is in place. But I wonder—do things like image backlinks, titles, and sizes really make a difference?
Speed is important, but it’s not everything. Backlinks are actually crucial when it comes to image SEO.
Image ranking works differently. Make sure your alt tags are on point, and Google also checks for patterns like copyright issues. Beyond that, quality matters a lot, so focus on high-quality images too.