'Net Features : images

SEO 3.0: Image Use and the Very Visual Future of Optimization

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:45:00 GMT

Google’s Matt Cutts indicated in his most recent video that using stock images on web pages does not have an effect on SEO – either negative or positive. Glad we have that cleared up!

While images may not directly influence rankings, it’s not too much of a stretch to see how really valuable (descriptive, attractive, compelling) images play a role in encouraging others to link to your content. So, in a roundabout way, the use of images may eventually be seen as really important by the search engines and the SEO community.

Cutts himself (in the video below) even indicated that Google may look into using the unique value of an image as part of the ranking algorithm or at least as a signal in the ranking algorithm. If that does happen, all that social media optimization you’ve been engaged in could pay off.

Essentially, it’s possible that the more likes, retweets shares and +1’s an image receives, the more value Google could assign it, improving the rank of the original hosting page as a result. That’s total speculation, but it could happen.

Startups like Olapic already see the potential in leveraging user-generated photos when it comes to social media optimization. The company allows brands (including Lululemon, Threadless, Coach, Steve Madden and others) to collect photos from services like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and display them on their websites. If Google or other search engines can find a way to connect the virtual dots so to speak, understand how engagement of this nature indicates relevance and popularity, you might just begin to see the emergence of SEO 3.0.

Pinterest Redesign Tackles the Big Pictures

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 01:00:00 GMT

Bigger is better – at least, that seems to be the philosophy that Pinterest is following when it comes to the social pinboarding site’s freshly launched new redesign.

The updated look is mostly notable for including bigger pictures, more linkage and enhanced discovery features, which were initially tested on select users starting back in January. Pinterest’s goal seems to be getting users to pin more and increase engagement with the images on the site.

In order to accomplish this task, the website has now added things like the ability to explore the pins on a user’s board without leaving the page that you’re currently visiting, along with links to related pins to those things that you’ve already pinned on the site. All of this will appear in new discovery tabs that will be alongside main images, meaning it will mirror sites like YouTube, which provide content discovery options from the page that a user is already on.

Plus, you’ll now be given pinning recommendations about what other users are pinning based on the content that you’ve flagged on your own board(s). This feature is also about to be released on the Pinterest mobile applications for iOS and Android.

Additionally, Pinterest also now has bigger pins and offers a better way to navigate back through your recent browsing history to find recently viewed content with a new back button.

And don’t forget, Pinterest also just released a new analytics service to help brand’s identify their most popular and best-performing content on the site. This, coupled with the new redesign, makes one think that Pinterest may just be getting ready to think about monetizing its service.

Developing Image Search Optimization

Michael Garrity — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:30:00 GMT

For SEOs, pretty pictures can do far more than just appeal to their sensitive sides; they can also help move up in the search rankings and drive traffic to their websites if they know what they’re doing.

It’s important to note that optimizing images does more than just make it easier for users to find them in a Google Image Search (although that’s probably the most important reason for doing it), but also because it increases the image’s shareability and plays a role in helping trace the picture back to your site, and on today’s highly social Web, that can be beneficial.

But what does it take to optimize images for SEO? Well, just keep reading…

File Names
Since you’ve already done all of the hard work of keyword research (right?), you already know which terms your most sought-after audience is going to be searching for. Use this knowledge to drop those keywords into the image’s file name when you’re saving it to your server. Now, search engines can read those keywords and your images will begin to appear for related search queries. A couple of considerations you should note: If you’re file name has more than one word, separate them by dashes (or hyphens) and not underscores. Also, Google recommends you only use common image file types, such as JPEG, PNG, GIF or BMP.

Alt Text
Because there isn’t any inherent text content that search engines can scan, images are at a natural disadvantage when it comes to SEO. One of the best ways to combat this prevalent problem (and improve the user experience of your site) is to add an alt tag to an image in a Web page’s HTML code that includes some helpful descriptive information about the content of the picture; and if you can slide some keywords in there naturally, all the better, but it certainly shouldn’t just be made up of keywords. Make sure your alt tag text is as descriptive as possible, and if you’re using a specific image as navigation to link to another page, also include text that is relevant to the page that it links to, as well.

Anchor Text
In the same vein, make sure that any text that you use to link to an image is both ranked for keywords and appropriately describes the image. Again, this isn’t just appealing to search engines; it’s also useful for your website visitors.

Page Placement
Once you’ve begun to optimize your images for the search engines, you can make them easier to find by placing the pictures next to or near keyword-related content on a Web page. Since search engines will be more drawn to these specific areas on a site, they’ll be more likely to spot your image when they crawl the page.

Links
Getting a few inbound links that point directly to your image is another great way to garner it some attention from the search engines. These can come in the form of you leveraging your own network of Internet properties to provide links to the images, or by building links from outside websites and/or publishers in the same way that you would look for links to your site and content; so don't be afraid to ask your friends and business partners for links once in a while. Just make sure these links use targeted keywords (or at least a close variation of those keywords).

Rich Snippets
Using rich snippets will tag a single image to your website or business that will appear anytime someone searches for your brand. So if you have one that is highly related to or indicative of your company/site, add some snippets. It will help your listings stand out on the SERPs and can even increase your click-through rate.

Social Interaction
The real reason images are quickly becoming a valuable currency on the Web is because of the rise of social media and social networking sites, which make shareability one of the most important qualities of good content. Because of this, you should be distributing your already-optimized images on various social networks like Facebook, Tumblr and Google+, as well as image hosting services Flickr, in addition to putting them on your website. Many of these services, particularly Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr, will allow you to tag your images with keywords and/or descriptions or caption, meaning you can also use this opportunity to get your pictures noticed by targeted users. Just don’t forget to find a way to include a link back to your website alongside the image (probably in the caption/description) so that you can also drive traffic from the social network, as well.

The Stipple Effect and the Growth of Image Tagging

Michael Garrity — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:45:00 GMT

Image tagging services make it possible for content publishers to monetize their pictures by making them more interactive, and as social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook make it increasingly easier to share images across the Web, marketers are growing more interested in finding ways to advertise or even sell products from inside their photos.

Stipple is the industry leader in image tagging, boasting a roster of major clients that includes Zappos, Nike, Nordstrom and L’Oreal. It’s also the only service that has been able to accurately tag images at the enterprise scale without relying on gimmicks. Currently, the company estimates that it will have tagged and made “monetize-able” over 100 million images with 100 percent accuracy by the end of 2012.

This extreme growth hasn’t gone unnoticed, and just yesterday it was announced that Stipple had received an additional $3 million in funding from Sands Capital in order to “accelerate its growth and product innovation.”

Just last month, Stipple was responsible for tagging an impressive 12 million images, but that would quickly be overshadowed, as now the company is on pace to tag over 80 million photos by the end of December. When asked about what has helped propel this surge in image tags over the last year, CEO Rey Flemings said the company’s success was all about providing its clients with the ability to scale to tag a lot of photos accurately so that those tags follow the images as they get shared across the Web. Moreover, it doesn’t hurt that Stipple is the only image tagging service to have attempted (and succeeded at) such a feat.

“At the end of the day, the challenge isn’t in helping people tag photos,” says Flemings. “It’s all about distribution.”

As part of the company’s push for greater distribution, it recently integrated with Twitter to bring its interactive images to the social network’s content stream, which could be one of the first steps towards unlocking in-stream commerce on Twitter.

Much of Stipple’s success can, and has, been attributed to its ability to scale to meet the image tagging needs of all of its clients. When the company launched, it wanted to help “solve the image problem,” and now it has done that for some of the largest brands in the world. Some of its clients have thousands, if not millions, of images that need to be tagged, and Stipple is able to help them do that not just with a streamlined, automatic process, but also with 100 percent accuracy across distribution channels, which his of utmost importance considering how often images are shared on the Web.

“[Stipple] builds a bridge between our product images on others’ websites and our own, with no human interaction, unprecedented accuracy and at scale,” says Greg Colando, President of FLOR.

Now with a significantly fatter wallet, Stipple is looking ahead to 2013 and hoping to build upon, and increase, its impressive numbers from 2012. That means growing its current database of images and expanding its client base to include even more enterprise-level brands. It also means hiring more staff members, particularly engineers and sales representatives. That is on top of the two big hires the company just announced: Darr Gerscovich (formerly of LinkedIn and Yahoo!), who will run Stipple’s marketing organization, and Stephanie Palmer, who will be in charge of working directly with the company’s growing network of publishers.

It seems safe to say that affiliates and advertisers may want to keep an eye on Stipple in 2013, particularly if they’re looking for a way to turn their images into money. And who wouldn’t like to do that, right?

Instagram Adoption On The Rise

Allison Howen — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 17:00:00 GMT

If your brand hasn’t jumped on the Instagram bandwagon yet, it may be time to reconsider your social strategy.

This is because more than half of the world’s top brands have already started making a name for themselves on the mobile-only photo sharing site, according to a recent study from social media analytics provider Simply Measured, which revealed that Instagram has grown 35 percent among brands in the last quarter, outpacing the growth of both Google+ and Pinterest.

“Seeing this level of activity, it’s more clear than ever that Instagram has graduated from a ‘fun new social network’ to an integral component of a brand’s social strategy,” said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO at Simply Measured. “While early adopters are seeing a majority of the engagement, there’s still time for newer brands to jump in and leverage the visual nature of the platform to engage and grow their audiences.”

Simply Measured’s Instagram study found that 54 percent of brands within the Interbrand 100 are now active on Instagram. Additionally, the study shows that cross-channel activity is important when it comes to sharing photos, with more than 90 percent of brand's Instagram photos also being shared to Facebook and 60 percent of the photos being tweeted. This allows consumers to engage with images from whichever network they use the most.

Also, in case you were wondering what the most popular filter for brands on Instagram is, Lo-fi takes the win – receiving 16 percent of the filter usage. Check out Simply Measured's chart below to view the rest of the filter stats.

Turn Your Pics Into Profits

Michael Garrity — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:06:00 GMT

Images are all the rage on the Web these days. This trend was probably inevitable, as it is an easy way for publishers, bloggers and marketers to satiate the desire of the average Internet user with quick bursts of content that can be easily digested and then set aside, while still spreading their message.

The problem with images is that once they’re out there, the average Web professional doesn't know how to maximize their potential. However, the ability to make images more engaging and interactive, and eventually maybe even monetize them, is one that is the focus of many industrious developers, and the result is a number of solutions aimed at helping publishers and marketers make the most of their image-based content.

The basic premise of these various solutions is the same; publishers can add tags or “hotspots” to one of their images, which means they select a certain part (or parts) of the picture, and then when users scroll over the picture, these areas are highlighted. When the user clicks on these tags in the image, they’re provided with additional content related to the picture. This can include everything from other relevant images to links to text to audio or visual content and beyond.

For publishers and marketers, these solutions present great opportunities to increase engagement (and thus interest) in their images, inspiring users to stop and interact with the picture, rather than just look at it and move on. Plus, these images can easily be shared on social networks like Twitter and Facebook to extend their reach – some of the products even come with social sharing tags. But they also offer more than just general engagement; customers can also utilize these as an e-commerce and advertising tool that can directly translate into cold, hard digital cash.

By making images “shoppable,” users are able to click on the tags and be sent directly to a site where they can buy the product shown in the picture. Or, customers can link to products with their own affiliate links. Either way, when users click the link to the product, it will send them directly to the product page on the retailer’s e-commerce site, and that allows publishers to get paid in the same manner they would for posting affiliate links in other types of content.

If you’re interested in making your image content more engaging – and profitable – check out one of these solutions:

Luminate allows publishers to use images to engage their audience, add incremental revenue, improve session times and increase traffic, while advertisers can drive relevance, provide a focused brand message and engage consumers. Users can add “positional sharing” apps that let users choose a “specific point” on an image, comment on it and then share it on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It also has an app that lets consumers browse and purchase products similar to those showcased in the image, and an Amazon Music app that lets them preview the music of the artist in a picture. It also comes with apps for YouTube Trailers, Netflix Videos, Wikipedia and much more.

Taggstar increases engagement with photos by an average of 40 percent and lets users earn money with e-commerce integration. Plus, it features robust analytics that provide real-time insights about how many and which people are looking at the pictures, and the images will remain trackable and monetized even when they’re embedded from the customer’s site to another one. And best of all, it’s totally free.

Thinglink works on a variety of popular website and blogging platforms, including WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Drupal, Joomla and others. Users can add media tags from a number of platforms, such as huge names like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Spotify, SoundCloud, Wikipedia, iTunes and Vimeo. There’s also integration with MailChimp for email campaigns, Etsy for displaying craft products, Eventbrite for promoting events, Best Buy and eBay for linking to products and more. And with Thinglink, users are able to import images from Flickr or Facebook, upload them from their hard drive or even copy the URLs of images from the Web.

Stipple lets publishers connect images via URLs, their websites or blogs, social networks like Facebook and Instagram or their online stores, and they can also upload them directly from their hard drives. Then, they tag those images with videos, other images, product links, locations, social media profiles, audio, notes or links. Stipple tracks the image to show the user where it “travels” to and how many people interact with it, providing them with the most accurate view of the picture’s reach and engagement numbers, including what content inside the image fosters the most interaction.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but thanks to the Internet (and these tools), it could end up being worth a thousand bucks, too. So, if you’re interested in monetizing your images, now may be the time to look at one of these great solutions.

Best Practices for Instagram Inspiration

Allison Howen — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:51:00 GMT

Even after it was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, many businesses are still unsure of how valuable the photo-sharing social network Instagram can be in their online marketing efforts.

That is quickly changing, thanks to a recent report from Simply Measured, which states 40 percent of the world’s top-100 brands now have a presence on Instagram. These major brands taking to Instagram seems like a natural choice in a day and age when the Web is increasingly social and interconnected. It’s no longer enough to just put your marketing message out there to be absorbed; these days, consumers want to connect with your brand, and photos are a great way to do that (after all, each one is worth at least a thousand words, which is a huge relief to your copywriters).

Instagram allows companies to share even more of themselves with their customers. It also provides greater opportunities to extend their reach and influence across the social Web, thanks to the ability (and desire) of users to share content on and across social networks.

In order to help you find sepia-filtered success with this relatively uncharted social channel, we’ve mined some of the top brands on Instagram to determine three best practice strategies, and then looked deeper into three different business sectors (retail, services and content publishing) to show you how different brands are using the service.

Best Practices:

#1 Be Consistent: The key to building a successful brand has always been to provide a clear and consistent tone or theme across your marketing channels. Keep this in mind with Instagram. While it may be fun to upload various types of content, you should keep your message consistent so that your followers know what to expect. One way to ensure you do this is to regularly post something specific on a daily or weekly basis that is unique to your brand and message, and can help consumers get a sense of what you’re all about. That being said…

#2 Keep It Interesting: Establishing a tone for your brand is essential, but that doesn’t mean that your followers have any interest in seeing you post basically the exact same picture all day, every day. Make an effort to mix things up. For example, don’t always just post pictures of your latest products, but also include images of your employees, industry events you may be attending (e.g. trade shows), people using your products, general lifestyle photos related to your business and anything else you can think of that is in line with the tone of your brand. In other words, keep things interesting to keep consumers engaged, which leads us to…

#3 Post Engaging Content: Success with social media has always been directly related to how well you’re able to engage your followers, and it’s no different on Instagram. Actively using hashtags to tag photos is a great way to get them noticed and generate user interest, and asking questions in your photo captions can help create discussions among your followers. Also, liberally respond with @replies to foster conversations directly with users. And don’t forget to take advantage of Instagram’s ability to allow users to publish their own content and interact with your brand by uploading photos and tagging them with a unique themed hashtag.

Examples:

Retailers

Many types of merchants are currently on the image-based social network – from apparel retailers like H&M to fast food companies like Taco Bell. However, it is important for these companies to not only use this social network to upload pictures of their latest products or promotions, but also to engage their audience. For example, Starbucks offers an interactive way for consumers to participate with its brand on the social network by telling consumers in the company’s “about” section to tag their photos with “#Starbucks!”. The coffee specialty retailer also makes their posts interactive by asking questions on the posted photos, such as, “loving the lighter #blonderoast. Have you tried it yet?”

Service Providers

Service providers may need to plan out their strategy a little more than the aforementioned merchants, but this industry can still take full advantage of Instagram’s image-packed social network. It is important for professionals within the service industry to provide a consistent tone on Instagram, so their audience can know what kind of content to expect. For example, The Knot’s Instagram profile not only offers wedding inspiration ideas, but also provides audience members with insight into the company’s staff. This means that brides can view floral photos for insights on bouquet arrangements, while also relating to the company’s employees by checking out a photo from the staff’s summer outing.

Content Producers

For content producers, the biggest challenge is turning content, which many times is in the form of written articles or blog posts, into interesting and engaging images. The best way to do this is to repurpose content, especially content that is visually appealing. ESPNSports does a great job at providing interesting and relevant content to its Instagram audience. The company has taken snapshots from memorable moments in sports – such as Felix Hernandez’s recent perfect game or Michael Phelps’ Olympic accomplishments – and posts them as Instagram photos that include hashtags, as well as attract a lot of comments and likes.

Monetize Images for Maximum Value

Michael Garrity — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 18:30:00 GMT

Stipple is a service that allows anyone to tag images with any type of URL link, including (but not limited to) images, videos, websites, PDFs, or download links. This makes it possible to monetize an image by including links to advertisements or e-commerce product pages, and, thus, makes images (the most popular type of content on the Web today) that much more valuable.

Recently, the company took off the wrapping and opened Stipple up to everyone in public beta. Along with this launch comes a new direction for the service that focuses more on social sharing (as opposed to simply letting advertisers tag photos) by allowing users to follow others, “like” images, and browse the site’s most popular pictures.

Users can upload images to Stipple directly from their computers, or import them from their website, blog, online store, or social media account(s). Once the photos are tagged, they are made shareable and embeddable, so that users can take them off of Stipple’s website and share them with the rest of the Web.

Each image will come with analytics that let the tagger see how many people have viewed and interacted with it.

At the moment, tags and analytics only work on Stipple’s partner sites, sites that embed images with an embed code, or for users that have downloaded the Stipple Viewer browser extension, which allows them to see Stipple tags outside of the publisher network; this is particularly convenient for users who want to published tagged photos on Facebook or Pinterest, because then they can reach at least those followers who have the extension.

Currently, over 4000 publishers have enabled Stipple on their sites and report that they “routinely” see engagement rates with Stipple-tagged images that are 100 times the rates of their display ads.

Photo Pin Rules! Search Creative Commons Photos

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:43:00 GMT

Every blogger that I know has the same problem – finding images they can use without having to break the bank to use one of the often expensive stock photo sites.

If that sounds familiar, have we got a site for you. Photo Pin, an application developed by Markus Urban, uses the Flickr API to search Creative Commons licensed photos, and breaks them out between those for commercial and those for non-commercial use.

Photo Pin users are essentially searching Flickr topics using the Photo Pin search facility, can preview the photo and even click “get photo” (which provides code snippets) to download the photo which includes the proper attribution link. Photos can even be purchased when necessary. The paid results take users to fotolia to buy photos, but the free Creative Commons results from Photo Pin (which actually works way, way better than Creative Commons itself for searching Flickr photos) is going to be the way to go for a vast majority of users.

In-Image Ads from AdMedia

Administrator — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:00:00 GMT

A new and rather innovative ad format came across the wire today and it might be something to look into for both publishers and advertisers.

Advertising and affiliate/publisher network Ad Media has unveiled OverlayAd.com, a platform that utilizes existing images and videos from websites for the purpose of monetization. Ad Media is touting the platform as a way for publishers to monetize static content and is claiming the new formats are yielding high-click through rates for advertisers. Since consumers already naturally gravitate towards graphics and video, and network advertisers and publishers see the potential in these types of content, OverlayAds might just be the next feasible way to generate revenue for publishers and drive awareness and web traffic for advertisers.

The Overlay Ad platform support several creative formats including text only ads, static banners (see image below) and rich media. What makes the platform really innovative, besides the contextual targeting algorithm, is that consumers attracted to the ads can actually interact with the advertisements by scrolling, viewing multiple ads, and performing searches without leaving the webpage.

Little in the way of revenue share for publishers or cost for advertisers was available. WM will keep an eye out on the progress of OverlayAd in the future, but if you see them in the wild do let us know.

Getty Images and Demand Media Enter Joint Licensing

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:20:00 GMT

Demand Media announced that they will be drawing from Getty Images’ library of rights-managed images, video footage and audio clips for use on their websites including typeF, LIVESTRONG.com and eHow.

Under the agreement, Getty Images will also become Demand Media’s exclusive distributor of stock video, allowing Getty Images to license the videos for specific uses at gettyimages.com.

“Demand Media’s video library provides our customers with access to stock video across hundreds of new topical categories,” said Craig Peters, senior vice president of business development at Getty Images. “Our partnership also allows for Getty Images to reach new customers by distributing our digital assets through Demand Media’s fast growing network of web properties.”

Demand Media has over 200,000 short form videos in its library covering topics like cooking, home renovation and fitness tips.

“Like Getty Images, we strive to create and distribute high quality content to a broad audience,” said Steven Kydd, executive vice president of Demand Media Studios. “Licensing our videos through Getty Images and including their award winning digital assets across our online properties was a natural fit for both of us.”

Photoshop on the iPhone... (Sigh)

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:01:00 GMT

As a diehard Google Android user nothing upsets me more than today's announcement from Adobe that the Photoshop.com Mobile iPhone application is now available. Sigh. For free (sigh).

Users will be able to edit photos, apply effects and share images, plus users can connect their Photoshop.com accounts to enable photo sharing and data back-up.

“As the digital imaging leader, Adobe is excited to bring Photoshop.com Mobile to iPhone users,” said Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. “Now, with access to powerful editing and sharing tools, iPhone users are armed with the resources to document all of life’s unexpected moments, make them look their best and then re-live those memories with friends and family.”

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On-Page SEO and Alt Text: SERP Ranking Influencer?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:41:00 GMT

The most important on-page ranking factors for placing competitively in search engine results pages (SERPs) include keyword use in the title tag, keywords in the domain (page names and folders too), keywords in the headline tags, within internal and external anchor text, within page copy, and yes ... keyword use in the alt text. While each of these factors is hotly contested in professional SEO circles, it's image alt text that has our attention today. You may be asking yourself, "What is this ... 2002 ... with the discussion of alt text?" And I might agree completely if it weren't for a recent spin I took on the SERPs of popular search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Let's start by developing a definition of alt text. The alt attribute is used in HTML (and XHTML) documents to specify alternative text that is to be rendered when the element to which it is applied cannot be rendered. Over time, adding alternative text for images became a principle of Web accessibility. While alt text can be applied to media, applets or other non-text Web content (like entire areas of a Web page) the common understanding is alt text as related to images (and image optimization).

Why include alt text on images? While they do provide screen readers something to consume and aid those with visual disabilities, alt text provides a semantic meaning and description to images which can't be read by search engines. Did you get that? Search engines, despite being technological marvels of efficiency and productivity, are dumb and they need your help (the webmaster/SEO) to tell them what an image actually means. That presents an incredible opportunity to influence position on the SERPs from where I stand. Don't believe me - take a look at an example.

Today I searched for "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread" - after a good experience over the Labor Day weekend. I concede that the examples below are only one sample but the results encouraged me to rethink the use of naming images (as an on-page SEO tactic) that appear within content. More on that below.

Of the top five results on Google, three out of five returns named an image on the ranked page with the alt text (or some slightly modified derivation of it) with "Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Bread": AllRecipes.com, AndreasRecipes.com, and ClosetCooking (on Blogger) all had alt text on their images. And the last one didn't even have any PageRank! RecipeZaar (which had an image but no alt text) and Cooks.com (its own search return list of related recipes) were the other two sites in the top five that were reviewed. Of the five final results on the first page, none had alt text.

Of the top five results on Yahoo!, three were identical to the top five on Google, but more importantly they (those with the alt text) were the ones that secured the first, second and third position. The next two results (position four and five respectively) did not have alt text on their images. Of the remaining listings, only one had alt text on its image.

Of the top five results on Bing, little had changed. AllRecipes and AndreasRecipes still topped the SERPs in the first and second position, but they were the only two of the top five that were using alt text. Consequently, of all the results that I encountered during this brief tour, Bing by far had the "spammiest" looking results.

So what’s the final verdict on alt text? While I do believe there are other more important factors in determining position (as outlined above) on the search results page, using alt text should be an important part of your on-page SEO – if only to be in-line with accessibility best practices. In the end, adding another layer of meaning onto your visual content can't hurt and by the looks of it, might just influence position if only for long-tail terms.

Getty Launches Image Products for Mobile Use

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Getty Images announced two new Web & mobile image products featuring very small file sizes – 170 pixels and 280 pixels – designed specifically for online and mobile use.

“As media consumption continues to accelerate towards digital, our customers tell us they want high quality imagery quickly, easily and at the appropriate price points in order to develop compelling digital campaigns that connect with their audiences,” said Andy Saunders, vice president of creative imagery at Getty Images. “Image buyers developing Web and mobile content often need hundreds of images at smaller file sizes. With our new Web & mobile products, we’re able to provide these customers with access to our vast collection of royalty-free and premium rights-managed imagery at the right size and price.”

The Web & mobile images are priced according to pixel size and license model, ranging from $5 for RF and $15 for RM, to the current $49 (413 pixels/500kb) Web-resolution product. Customers can now use Getty Images’ imagery collections (with rights control, too) in their smallest Web and mobile uses with minimal manipulation or resizing.

While there are hundreds of image collections on the Web, few have the depth and support that Getty provides.

Making Images Accessible - Snapixel Stock Photography

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:45:00 GMT

One of the challenges with using stock photography (besides the fact that others can use it too) is that the cost is nearly out of reach for many Web professionals and designers. Creative Commons, while helpful, does not really provide the deep creative library one would hope.

New photography site Snapixel hopes to correct all that by combining elements of the photo sharing site Flickr and the popular stock photography site Istockphoto. The service's recently announced Openstock offering is a system that provides photographers with an easy-to-market solution to sell photos.

"The Snapixel model extends selling power to all levels of photographers. While not every image belongs in a stock photography marketplace, our ultimate goal is to widen the creative spectrum of traditional stock photography, without decreasing the value," said Ivan Wong, COO and co-founder of Snapixel.

Built using the Amazon Web Services(TM) cloud-computing platform, Snapixel offers photographers of all levels to opportunity to upload and organize their photos. Photos for sale can be distributed with a standard and extended license, or Creative Common licensing can be applied to images that are not for sale. Photos can be easily purchased with Snapixel credits, and prices vary depending on the license type and size of an image. Most of the images found by Website Magazine (even those of high resolution) were in the five to twenty Euro range.

Snapixel offers 1GB of free storage or a premium package for unlimited storage.