Thousands of photos and images are uploaded onto the internet every day. Some of these grab millions of eyeballs, while others pass unnoticed. What causes this stark contrast? Not following standard techniques for optimizing your pictures for the Internet could mean that you will lose out on several visitors. Simple things like making sure your pictures are too large files for quick download and providing the right kind of information for Google indexing can make a huge difference when it comes to image SEO. We explore the top three techniques that almost anyone out there can use for optimizing images for the web. It’s quick, it’s easy, it‘s smart, and, most importantly, it can help draw hundreds more visitors to your beautiful photographs and pictures!

1.   A Good Title Is a Necessity

 The image you upload should always come with a catchy SEO keyword optimized title. Website visitors read this name when they hover their cursors over your image.

2.    A Great Caption is Everything

As the person who posted the images, you don’t just want people to see them, but also to spend time on your website, reading over the content there. A caption can be the extra bit of information about where, what, and when a picture was taken that draws your visitors’ interest. Captions are text appearing under images, describing the picture and its dynamics.

3.    Alt Tags

Alt tags are actually picked up by search engines like Google. They use it to index pictures and web sites. These words will determine how high your post or image collection will rank on consumer searches. So, don’t leave that field blank when optimizing images for the web!

The Internet is an ever-changing landscape.  Similar to the constant evolution of the web is the constant evolution of search engine giant, Google.

If you have been on Google Places recently, you should have noticed that it looks different than it used to.

Google has been implementing changes to catch up with its primary rival, Facebook.  Google has been integrating their key features into one platform.  Those key features include their search engine, business directories, maps and social network.  Google’s Vice President of engineering, Jen Fitzpatrick stated that, “With one listing, your business can now be found across Google search, maps, mobile and Google+, and your customers can easily recommend your business to their friends, or tell the world about it with a review”.

Right now, if your business has a Google Places page, you have nothing to worry about.  To make it easy on users, Google went ahead and integrated all of the current Google Places pages into their new Google+ Local pages.

There is now a new tab inside Google+ called Local.  It is located in the sidebar of Google+.  These pages can still be reached through maps or the search engine; the new tab makes it easier for users on Google+ to find the Google+ Local pages.  This is the new location of your business information.

How Google+ Local Works

The purpose of Google+ Local is to give users the ability to share and discover information regarding local businesses.  The new layout facilitates social sharing of this information.  They have also combined Google Places with Zagat review.

Now that these changes have been made, you do need to check your account and make sure that it has been converted correctly.  Otherwise, you could lose business.

If your business is not listed at this time, you should take care of it sooner than later.  To reiterate the importance of listing your business, do a search in Google for businesses that are similar to your business.  You will see how much of your competition is already listed and taking your potential clients and/or customers.

You need to set up your Google Plus Local profile and update it on a regular basis.  People will have the ability to write reviews about your business and they will also be able to recommend your business to the people within their social network at one quick click of a button.

Let’s take a tour of the changes now.

The New Google+ Local Tab

The new Local tab is so that users can look for specific categories or places.  It is on the left side in Google+.  Clicking on the tab will take the user to the Google+ Local page of a business or company.  Once on the page, the user will see contact information, location, pictures, plus reviews and Zagat scores.

What Are Zagat Scores?

Last year, Google purchased Zagat, a review company.  Zagat scores and summaries are both shown on all of the Google+ Local pages.  Zagat works by using a 30-point scale.  It displays the average score of the reviews given to a company.  Those scores are separated into categories.  The summary of the scores can be found at the top of the page.

On a Google+ Local page, you will see scores ranging from 0-3 by each review.  These are the score meanings:

0 is poor

1 is good

2 is very good

3 is excellent

Google+ Local provides you an excellent opportunity to advertise your business!  You can add your logo, pictures, testimonials and a business description to tell your potential clients and customers all about your business.

Increase Your Rankings With Google+ Local

Each time a users leaves your business a review, it gets higher rankings in the local search engine page results.  You need to get people writing and leaving your business positive reviews so you can gain even more visibility.

Nowadays, it is absolutely crucial to provide excellent customer service.  This is how you get people to leave your business positive reviews.  You must go above and beyond in all areas of your business.  Those positive reviews will put you in front of new customers.

Great news….somebody has visited your website.  Hurrah!  Perhaps they might buy your product or decide to use your services…but wait…oh NO!  They are leaving again. “What?” you cry, “They only stayed for 5 seconds”.

If your site is not converting visitors to sales, then you might be committing one of these deadly mistakes:

1.  Flash Driven Design

Search engines hate Flash driven design.  In fact they hate them so much that they will completely ignore your site no matter how pretty you think that it looks.

So what if it is clever and it contains beautiful state of the art design? Nobody is ever going to see it.  Google is just going to skip right past your site as if you are the invisible man.  And those millions of iPhone and iPad users who use their mobile devices instead of their desktops certainly won’t see it because they can’t see Flash on their phones.

It is pointless to annoy Google so much it chooses to ignore you.  It’s YOU that won’t get any visitors.  Just because you can add whistles and bells doesn’t mean that you should.

2. The Annoying “Welcome to our website”

How long do you think you have to grab your visitor’s attention?  Here’s a hint: It isn’t 2 minutes, 1 minute or even 30 seconds.  It is more like 10 seconds.  That is all the time you have, so don’t waste it with such a boring introduction.

Most people don’t like to read much on the online, so when they first visit your website they are probably just going to quickly scan it to see if anything catches their eye.  Why would you want to squander an already tiny attention span by reminding people which site they are visiting?  Instead, use an attention grabbing headline?

People should already know where they are just from glancing at the top of your site, where they should see your logo and a snappy tagline, or a short description of your site, so there is absolutely no need for stating the obvious with a banal “welcome to our website” message.  Yawn!

3.  “We…. We… We… We… We…zzzzzzzz”

“We have a team of….”

“We plan to….”

“We have been in business for…..”

Sorry to sound blunt but. . . NOBODY CARES!

Visitors to your website are only interested in one thing: What is in it for ME?”

If your site doesn’t answer this question pretty quickly they will leave.

Instead of just talking about you and your site or your business, imagine that you are talking one to one with one of your typical customers and ‘speak’ to them as an individual.  Tell them how your product or service is going to benefit them.

4. Tech Speak

Every industry and business sector has its own tech speak and industry only words that nobody else understands.

Try talking to friends and family about Autoresponders, SEO and long tail keywords and you’ll see their eyes glaze over as they slip into a coma.

If you use words, terms and phrases that mean something to you but go straight over your visitor’s heads, then you are going to lose them.  We’ve already said visitors are going to scan over much of the content on your website anyway, so it makes sense to make it as easy as possible for them to be able to pick out and understand the main points from the bits that they do read.

5.  No Clear Call to Action

As well as telling your visitors “what is in it for them”, your next job is to tell them what they need to do now.

It is absolutely pointless giving them great reasons why they should use your products and services, and then not tell them what they need to do next to get it.

You need to have a clear call to action AND make it blatantly obvious what you want them to do.

Do you want them to ring you up for a free quotation?  Then tell them!

However, telling them to ring you and then hiding your number somewhere on your website is another big fail.   If your call to action is telling them ‘RING US RIGHT NOW’, then make sure you put your telephone number right next to it.

Do you want them to click on the ‘Buy Now’ button?  Again, you have to tell them, and then show them clearly where that Buy button is.

And don’t try to cleverly disguise the button or link.  Make sure that it is bold and clear enough for them to see what they need to press.

Never assume that your visitors will know what to do next.  S-P-E-L-L   I-T   O-U-T  for them.  Tell them what you want them to do.  If you make it difficult for them, then they will leave.  Yes, they probably could figure it out….but they won’t!  They will move on to the next site in the blink of an eye.

You invest a lot of time and money encouraging people to visit your website.  So why scare them off by making one of these fatal mistakes.

If you are considering having a website, there are several important things to be aware of before buying your own domain name.

So what is a domain name?

A domain name is a web address that people type into their browsers to get to your website.  It is also what Google and other search engines display or use to link to your site.  So the question is where do you get one and how do you choose a good one.

Well,  first off choosing your domain name is very important and shouldn’t just be taken lightly or taking one that doesn’t fit just because it sounds cool.  Here are some things to look out for before choosing your name.

1. What is the domain name for?