How to turn your website’s images into Google Juice

By Jude Goodwin

The most sought after commodity for businesses on the internet is what we like to call Google Juice. Websites that have a lot of Google Juice will appear in the top fold of search index pages and this will translate into traffic - more people coming to your website to see your products or your services. Did you know the images on your website can earn you tons of Google Juice?

Increasing your website's Google Juice is referred to, in the industry, as SEO (search engine optimization). There are literally dozens and dozens of ways to improve your website's SEO and we've introduced a few SEO basics here on our blog. But today we want to talk about your website's images.

Let's start with a wee exercise. Think of something you might want to find on Google. We're going to choose a photographer, Yvonne Hanson. Search 'Y Hanson Photography.'

At the top of the Google search result, you'll see options to click on All, Shopping, Images, Maps, Videos or More. Click on Images.

You'll immediately see a good page full of images by Y Hanson Photography. In fact, 23 of the top 24 photos were taken by Yvonne Hanson, and most will link to her website.

To compare, let's choose photographer Kelsey Goodwin: 'Kgood Photo.'  Type this into Google and click on images. You’ll see there are 6 on the top row, then row after row after that there are none.

Both women are amazing photographers! Google's indexing has nothing to do with their talent. But it has everything to do with their SEO.

What is the difference between these two search results?

Let's take a look at three images from each site.

We’ve chosen three random images from kgoodphoto.com and see that they are named:

kaitlyn-13.jpg
studio_kanti-87.jpg
anna-5.jpg

We’ve chosen three random images from yhansonphotography.com and see that the are named:

YHanson+Photography+Vancouver+Pride+2022+8.jpg
YHanson+Photography+Milana+38.jpg
YHanson+Photography+Abortion+March+65.jpg

Can you guess now why Yvonne's images have more Google Juice than Kelsey's?

Yvonne's images all contain keywords in their file names. Specifically Y Hanson Photography followed by a description of the photo set. In contrast, Kelsey's photos say nothing about her company or the photo set.

It’s time to rename your images

Rename the photos and other images on your website to include key words and keyword phrases. This is a simple trick which carries a whole lot of Google juice.

When choosing your new file names, consider these simple steps:

1. Include your company name

2. Include geography if that's important to your company

3. Include description of photo-set or photo setting or service or product you’re featuring

4. Use hyphens or plus signs instead of underscores

5. Every photo needs a unique name - as easy as it might seem to simply copy and paste, Google doesn't like duplicate content anywhere.

Let's take a look at one of Yvonne's images again. This one is from her online gallery of Pride photos.

YHanson+Photography+Vancouver+Pride+2022+8.jpg

You see it has her company name, then the word Vancouver setting the geography of her services, then Pride+2022 which is the name of her photos set. Finally, she's added +8 to the end to create a unique file name.

Naming her image in this way gives it maximum chances for being found in a search. Here are some other examples of good image filenames:

georgetown-meats-free-range-turkey.jpg
honeypot-beauty-lash-extensions.jpg
test-of-metal-mountainbike-rade.jpg

Fastest way to rename the images on your desktop

Here's a simple way to get those images renamed.

1. Gather  the images you want on your website, and put them in a unique folder on your desktop called Website Originals.

2. Duplicate that folder on your desktop, and rename it Website Optimized

3. Open the Optimized folder and set it to List View.

4. Click on the top image so that you are able to rename it, then type in your new name. Something like

<company-name>-<location>-<service>-01.jpg

5. Copy that name and use it to select and rename each additional image in that folder, changing the 01 to 02, 03, 04 and so on. 

Optional: Choose unique names for every one of your photos - but make sure the first words include keywords

6. Once finished replace every image on your current site with a new version that has a new filename.

Think of it logically

A person might search on Google for  Y Hanson Photography or KGood Photo but it's very unlikely they'll ever look up DSC310122.jpg or IMG220114.jpg 

Name your images with keywords and keyword phrases to help your services be found.

A final thought - Even though Y Hanson's photos are easily found, her webmaster might want to consider adding more keywords. For example, “portrait photography” or “event photography”. I'm going to suggest that to her and because Yvonne is in Goodwin Creative’s Maintenance Club we can add this job to our list of To Dos for January 2023 on her website.