You probably already know that search engines cannot tell what an image posted on your site is all about. For example, if you post an image like this one:

…how can a search engine know that the picture is about John Stockton? Even if you put a text saying ‘John Stockton’ within that image, it still can’t be read by the search spiders.

There are a couple of effective ways to make this image searchable.

1. Use the Alt-Text Tag
This is an html tag that you assign to an image. It basically tells the search engines what the picture is about. So for our example, we can use an Alt-text tag like: “John Stockton: NBA All-Time Leader in Assists and Steals”.

The whole html tag will then look like this:

<img src=”johnstockton.jpg” alt=”John Stockton: NBA All-Time Leader in Assists and Steals”>

Another purpose of using the Alt-Text tag is that you will make it easy for text-based web browsers to identify the image on your site, even if the actual image will not be shown.

2. Write a Descriptive Caption
Don’t just write any caption, make sure that it is descriptive. Instead of saying, “A basketball player dribbling a ball”, say:

John Stockton: NBA All-Time Leader in Assists and Steals

Why should you do it this way? If a visitor is not familiar who John Stockton is, he would just see a basketball player dribbling a ball. By writing a descriptive caption, not only does he find out the name of the player, he also learns that John Stockton is not just any common player. That he is an NBA legend who is renowned for his assisting and stealing abilities.

And also, the text surrounding an image will help the search spiders know what the picture contains.