After reading the Google PDF on search image optimization, I too was also amazed at the level of seo activity taking place today. Once again, the “KISS” (keep it simple stupid) principle applies to the situation but there's also a fine art in trying to keep things simple and also interesting and organized. As the Google pdf stated it's important to add the appropriate information to the metadata (not generic information and also make sure you don't use too much.)
One thing I find particularly interesting is that many of us are likely headed into the world of multimedia and that we will likely be posting videos, photo and audio onto our sites. The use of adding these elements, I believe will be very beneficial and can possibly add more viewers to
your site if done correctly. One site I found helpful was http://www.antezeta.com/blog/video-seo-top-tips. The blog talked about “8 Ways to Optimize Video for Search Engine Visibility” and stated that “While Google might be the choice for comprehensive web search, Google’s video search is limited to Google Video and YouTube – probably not what most Internet users have in mind. For a true video search engine, a better place to start is Yahoo Video Search, which does try to catalog the entire world’s video information.” Many folks are posting videos on YouTube but there area number of other video hosting sites that many folks believe better quality (Vimeo is one example) and from the information, I read on the Antezeta site, your video may even be searched/viewed if it's not posted on the correct site.
Another item in the article I thought was interesting was their suggestion to “Offer a textual transcript of audio and video content. This is a usability and accessibility requirement as well as a search engine optimization tip.” Transcribing an entire video/audio/or detailing everything about photos can be a pretty imposing task but II believe if you posted the correct metadata and also use social networking you will eventually find additional traffic to your site. I believe many people are interested to see a place or activity before going there and if have the right information and a quality product, people will visit your website.
Another site I found interesting was http://lightroom.theturninggate.net/tag/search-engine-optimization/. One comment on this site stated , “Being a web photo gallery engine, it’s the images above all else that are important. Search engines first look at an image’s filename, much as we, as people, first look at a person’s face when meeting them. In most cases, the camera’s default filenames will be insufficient for our purposes; DO NOT post images to your gallery named _MG_0001.jpg. You may as well shoot yourself in the foot.” The site also says “In applying SEO to photographic websites, it is important to first understand that search engines rummage through text, not images. Google’s image search does not search images, but searches the text associated with images. Therefore, in the world of search engines, your images are only as good as the words you attach to them, and the words you surround them with.”
As we continue down the path learning more about web design, I can see how organization is extremely important and having simple file names helps locate things. I am also bewildered at how much information a good website needs to keep up with the competition and current trends.
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It's interesting how deep you have to dig - making sure the filename of your photos is changed to words rather than "img001.jpg" for example - to get a little edge in SEO. There's no question that proper SEO techniques are vital for businesses. I know at our newspaper - and, obviously, I assume at every newspaper now - guidelines for SEO are taught and stressed to all who post. If you are in a business that depends on Web traffic, I don't believe it is an overstatement to say that SEO is absolutely vital to survival.
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