Using Images in Blogs Posts to Increase Traffic
Although most blogs are primarily text offerings, consistent use of appropriate images in posts can generate a non-trivial volume of traffic. In the scramble for traffic in a competitive blogosphere, it might be considered indifferent to disregard traffic from image searches.
Recently, I saw an immediate 10% increase in traffic volume to one of my blogs simply by including an image in each post. The images were specific to the content of the post but remained general enough to offer some cross-niche appeal. Likewise, they were images I had created or photos I had taken, and therefore were not available elsewhere.
When using images on a blog, keep in mind the following SEO best practices to maximize potential traffic gains:
- use keyword-rich alt tags to describe the image;
- use a keyword-rich name for the image file;
- try to use original images – images available elsewhere in the ‘net can be seen elsewhere;
- use images relevant to the blog post;
- if possible, use an image relevant to the title of the blog post – this can help improve ranking in image searches;
