How Google Image Search Can Bring You Traffic

How many times a day do you use Google Image Search? For me, it’s about 10-15 times per day. Millions more are also searching for images as you read this.

It’s no secret that Google Image Search can not only be a great source for pictures, but from a webmaster’s standpoint, it’s an excellent source of traffic. You should be using images in your posts if you’re not already. Not only does it make your post more interesting to the reader, but can also get your site more exposure on Google.

It all begins with the file names you choose to use with your images. Simple names like pic1.jpg won’t cut it, especially when it comes to a user searching for that picture. Chances of someone searching specifically for “pic1” is very unlikely. Give your images thoughtful and descriptive names, and avoid using underscores at all costs.

Example of a good and bad image name.

Good: baseball-cards.jpg
Bad: picture_1.jpg

Like I said, use descriptive names and link words together using a dash instead of an underscore. Google sees underscores as two separate words unrelated to each other and won’t rank your image well for those terms. Use a dash to link multiple words so Google knows they go together, i.e. your-phrase-here.jpg. Remember to also give your images appropriate alt and title tags when inserting them into posts. This gives Google another reassurance as to what the image should be named.

There’s also another step you can take to make sure Google knows where to find your images; update your site’s robots.txt file.

Add this line to it:

User-agent: Googlebot-Image
Allow: /blog/wp-content/uploads/
Disallow: /blog/wp-content/themes/theme-name/images/

You want to allow your main image directory to be spidered, but not the image directory for your blog’s theme, as shown above. Of course, the exact file location of the example above will vary on your site’s own structure.

Once you start using these tips as a general rule when uploading images, you’ll soon notice that Google will index your pictures more frequently. To find out how many images Google has already indexed, simply type “site:yourdomain.com” into Google and then click search. Next, click on the Images tab (see below).

How does doing this bring me traffic?

When your images are searched for on Google, your domain is listed below each image. When someone clicks on a picture, your site is opened up in the frame below in the location where that picture is located. Chances are the visitor is going to browse through to your site to see what else you offer.

Google Image Search is the 4th most popular referral of traffic for MoneyMakingScoop.com. Is your site image friendly?

Tweet This Post!