How to get your images found on Google

So how can the images on your website help you climb the pages of Google, and why does that even matter? Well less than 1% of people searching click through to page 2, so if you’re not on that first page, you’re not getting found. 

And you might say “But Maddy, I’ll never get to page one!” then let me tell you I’ve seen small businesses just like yours get to page one and win over big brands by following the very advice I’m sharing today. 

Remember, it’s all about seeking out those exciting opportunities, after all, that’s what SEO stands for – Seeking Exciting Opportunities and there are plenty of them.

The 18 Key Analogy

I heard a great analogy the other day and I’ll be repeating this to everyone because it rings SO true.

When we get locked out of our house, we call the locksmith and they come round with 18 master keys to help us get back into our home. The locksmith will try one key at a time, safe in the knowledge that one of them will work, they just have to keep trying one at a time. Do they have an existential crisis after each one when it doesn’t work? No, they do not.

And yet that’s how we treat our businesses.

We need to stop pretending we’ve used 17 keys. We haven’t. We’ve barely 1 or 2. We’re so terrified of getting it wrong but actually we need to build in habits, just like we do for everything else. Just as when we’re taking photos we know the steps to take a photo. Just as when we’re cooking dinner, brushing our teeth. We don’t have an existential crisis if we brush our teeth differently. In fact sometimes we find a new and improved way of doing things and we don’t even congratulate ourselves because it seems banal and everyday. And yet we place so much emphasis on promoting our business in this way, that everything feels very heavy. Especially in 2020.

So getting your images on Google found is another key to try (and this one really works!)

Did you know? 72% of searchers look up images before purchasing!

93% of all global searches start with Google, Google My Business + Google Images

So, where do you start with getting your images found on Google?

Here’s a brief reminder of how search engines work, Google is a giant library. Our websites need to be tagged with certain topics in order to connect with those searching for that topic. It’s actually, dare I say it, the simplest way to get found on page one of Google

Regardless of whether you’re a visual business or not, i.e.  you rely on your images to sell your services or not you need to be sharing images, people like images, they like pretty colours, we are magpies after all (humans are animals, I know I often forget that) – so stock images, or befriend photographers, hire photographers, learn to take your own photos there are many courses out there particularly in 2020, you need photos.

1. Size matters (for images!)

Check the dimensions of your images width and height, usually 2000 px wide max for images you use on images and 1200 px wide for images you use on blog posts is just fine. Any bigger and you’re making the website work harder than it needs to and slowing the website down. Upload your images to Tinyjpg or Jpegmini to compress the file size (think of it like zipping the image) before uploading to your website.

2. Check the format of the image

Your images need to be either .png or .jpg at the end of the image name so as to be suitable for website use.

3. Create unique images

Remember that you can’t just nick photos off Google or Pinterest and claim ignorance. I know way too many cases where people have not got permission to use an image and they have landed themselves hefty fines. Use stock photos if you must but use them where there are permissions in place. Canva Pro has a fantastic collection.

4. Rename your images

Before you upload your images to your website, rename the images individually (yes, it takes time but yes it’s 100% worth it) with your keywords, service you’re providing, location, details. This becomes the title tag.

Related episode: The Power of Yoast

5. Add to relevant content

You need to use relevant images related to your topic or otherwise create them (Canva has thousands of templates to create text graphics!) The clearer the topic of the page, the more likely it is that your images will be found. If you try and cover multiple topics on multiple pages, you’ll be making life harder for yourself unnecessarily.

6. Page title + description of the page is key

If you listened / read my advice about Yoast, you’ll have heard this before but you need to make sure the title of the page and the description (in Yoast if you use it!) is relevant and related to the images too. It makes life so much easier!

7. ALT text

Once you’ve uploaded the images to your website you’ll need to add what’s known as ALT text, which is text describing the image, but make it (slightly) different from the filename. This makes sure that Google knows the topic of the image and you get plus points for SEO!