Matt Cutts returns in this video to talk about optimization for image search traffic. This discussion was inspired by Liam from Ireland who was ruminating whether an increase in traffic would follow the revision of image names from plain tags to more descriptive ones. He was also wondering about the differences between traffic for web search and image search.
Matt definitely sees a lot of potential in this idea. If a website already has good fundamentals and relatively high page rank to begin with, then one can expect it to gain even more traffic with improved image names. Lots of people upload pictures while retaining the default alphanumeric name attached to it like DSC00001, IMG_333, and the like. Even if these are fantastic photographs of cute cats, for example, they will have trouble getting to the top of the ranking for related keywords.
So many webmasters and SEOs focus their attention entirely on web search. They tend to neglect other vital sources of traffic like image search and video search—things which actually provide a substantial amount of views to those who know how to harness them.
Video Link:
Should I expect increased traffic if I optimize my images? –
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