Image search is another method to increase traffic to your website. In order to do this, however, the image must be properly optimized to appear in search engine results, location searches, and connect back to your website.
With proper image optimization, Milestone's hotel clients have seen a significant increase in traffic originating from image search. Just as it is important to make videos searchable, it is important to make images searchable for the following reasons:
It is free! No Cost Per Click/Action -
Unlike PPC/ paid search, currently there is no cost per click charge for image
views on image search engines. This makes online searchable images a phenomenal free source of advertising.
Social Media Tagging, Customer Reviews -
Many image search engines allow the ability to tag your image, post
reviews on their sites or email it to a friend. This functionality opens up new low cost advertising media for search
marketers.
Universal Search -
Recently Google and other search engines launched a feature called universal search. Universal
search shows mixed search results from online advertising media such as images, video, mobile, local, and several
others. Now image search results are showing up in major search engines under regular results. This helps in
optimizing (dominating) search engine results effectively by adding image search in to your marketing mix.
Milestone's Image Optimizing Process -
Milestone uses Flickr's image service for hosting images and albums for clients. The main objective for setting up a Flickr profile is to create a highly-optimized photo channel on Flickr and optimize/tag photos for search engine optimization. Milestone will be leveraging hotel photos and destination/attraction photos provided by the hotel. Specifically, Milestone will be conducting the following activities to set up the Flickr channel:
Conduct custom keyword research to determine the top keywords to target on Flickr
Set up customized Flickr account with keyword rich profile description
Set up photo album with property and/or attraction photos provided by client
Each photo will be optimized with a keyword-rich title, description, and keyword tags
Each photo will be geo-targeted on a map
Cross-optimize with Facebook page
Milestone Image Optimization Offering -
Milestone has seen tremendous success on search engines with our image optimization strategy. Interested to see an example? Click here to check out the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach Hotel's optimized Flickr photo stream. Please contact your Milestone rep for more information.
