how google treats & ranks images by eli feldblum

HOW GOOGLE

TREATS &

RANKS IMAGES

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Eli Feldblum

RankAbove

@Feldbum

#SMX #34C

October 3, 2013

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About This Presentation

• How Well Do Images

Perform in Search

Engines?

• How Has That Changed?

• How Do You Make Your

Images Rank?

• What’s Changed?

• What’s Changing?

About Me

• Eli Feldblum

• CTO & Founder of RankAbove

• eli@rankabove.com

• @FeldBum

• 201-815-9467

How Did Images Once Perform

In August 2010, RankAbove

and comScore conducted a

large study on how universal

results—including images—

performed in search engines,

compared with regular text

results.

How Did Images Once PerformIn that study, images kicked ass.

How Did Images Once PerformWell, most of the time.

How Did Images Once PerformIn August 2013, we re-ran the study.

How Do Images Perform Today?

All universal

results dropped

since our 2010

study, but only

images lost to

non-universal

results—except

for celebrity

images.

Why?

CTR from all universal results dropped as users either got

more accustomed to seeing those results or because Google

offered searchers more information on universal searches

without having to click. But images suffered more than most.

Why?

Mostly because of UI changes made by Google.

Why?Unless the users clicks “Visit Page” or on the image,

he or she does not continue on to the site.

What Happened?That UI change occurred in January 2013, and hit sites hard.

What Happened?That UI change occurred in January 2013, and hit sites hard.

What Happened?That UI change occurred in January 2013, and hit sites hard.

What Else Did Google Change?Google makes changes to search all the time.

What Else Did Google Change?All of these things are not like the other

What Else Did Google Change?It didn’t used to be like that. Uniqueness now counts.

How Do Images Rank?

• Good SEO (on-page and off-)

• Unique Image

• Surrounding Text

• Image Name (not Alt Tag)

Which Sites Rank

• Lots of text with one or two images.

• Lots of images with a bit of text.

• Lots of images and lots of text.

• What doesn’t rank: one image with no text.

Sound familiar? I just described the average

slideshow

Text Sites RankSites with lots of relevant content,

well-named images and good overall

SEO often rank highly for image

searches—as long as they have

unique images.

Multiple Image Sites RankSites with many

images on a single

page often rank as

well, as they are

almost always

assured of at least

one unique

image—as long as

they have some

relevant text and

good SEO.

Multiple Image Sites RankAnd they don’t

even have to be

ugly. Take a look

at Boston.com’s

Big Picture for a

beautiful

employment of

this technique.

Combo Sites Rank Best

Sites with good text and

lots of images not

surprisingly do the best.

How To Get The Click

Give people a reason to click: more

pictures, or a higher quality or non-

censored version. But ensure that

the same functionality exists on

your site as well.

How To Get The Click

Or use scripts, like WP-PicShield, that add a watermark on the fly.

How To Get The Click

Or use scripts, like WP-PicShield, that add a watermark on the fly.

And Get Your Traffic Back1. Google Image Search

update hits site

2. Watermarks implemented

and traffic returns

More Information?Just contact me:

Eli Feldblum

eli@rankabove.com

201-815-9467

@FeldBum

http://www.slideshare.net/SearchMarketingExpo

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