Images are another area that is often ignored when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Because the search engines only understand text, meaning that they can only discern content that is text and not images or Flash animation, any images on your web pages are essentially unknown entities – unless you take the extra step of telling the search engine what it is. (Geek warning: this is going to get technical again, but it’s important.) For example, a typical HTML image tag would look something like this:

<img src="http://mydomain.com/images/mypic.jpg"/>

This doesn’t tell the search engine anything about what the image is. Using what is call an “alt” attribute on the image will say something about the image. So the same image tag made Search Engine Optimization friendly would look like:

<img src="http://mydomain.com/images/mypic.jpg"
  alt="a good description"/>

Now all you have to do is come up with a good description. If it’s a picture of you, don’t use a description of “this is me” – because that still doesn’t tell Google what the picture is. Instead, use your name. So a description of “John Smith, owner of domain.com” would be great. It tells the search engine what it is, uses your name as well as your domain name.