Have you ever heard the cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words?  Online, that picture may be worth quite a bit more because of two interesting facts that most small businesses never consider when promoting their products or services online.

Google presents something called blended search results, which means they show images and videos alongside thext links for ANY search conducted through their site.  It is much easier to get an image to the first page of Google that it is to get any kind of text link or website.

If you consider both of these facts, along with the obvious fact that photos can tell a story about your business in a way that even the best written marketing language cannot, it should come as no surprise that having images as part of our web marketing of your business is quickly becoming imperative.

• Re-title your files: rename your image files to something meaningful like “business_for_sale.jpg.”  An image title that uses keywords is the first to optimize your images online.
• Add an image gallery:  The benefit of having these images directly on your website, is that they are linked to your main URL and this is beneficial from a search point of view.  The other positive is that you can link to share with anyone.  The other search tip for these images is that you should be sure to add “alt text” which is the text added in the code behind your image so that you describe it for those who cannon see it for any reason.  Search engines also read this text to understand what the image is of.
• Promote the images: you will want to try and share your images anyplace your business has an online profile.

Many small businesses have completely ignored online images area of marketing that could have a huge impact on their bottom line.