Optimizing through Image Sharing Sites Chris Silver Smith Head, Technology & Development Superpages.com by Idearc Media

2006 About Chris Silver Smith Head of Technology Dept. for Superpages.com. Early SEO research as an analyst for Superpages in Direct the natural search optimization research and development for Superpages.com sites. Have 5 patents pending for local search technologies, presentation processes, and mapping. About Superpages.com Recently spun-off from Verizon Communications – formerly Verizon Information Services company. Part of Idearc Media (NYSE: IAR) SuperPages.com is the expert in local search receiving over 17 million monthly unique visitors and completing over 200 million searches per month.

2006 Among Search Engines, Vertical Search is Growing, And Image Search is the Strongest Chart Source: Hitwise, 2006

2006 Evidence of User Importance of Image Search with Each of the Major SEs:

2006 Search Engines are Integrating Vertical Search Results into Primary SERPs

2006 Potential SEO Value of Social Image Sharing Sites: Photo Sharing Site PRPR # Pages Indexed Tags Links allowed Flickr929.2 mil Photobucket 8800 k (filename) xxx PBase82.75 mil x Webshots811 mil x k Fotki72.4 mil MySpace819.4 milxxx Facebook722 kxx x

2006 Design of Flickr is Advantageous for SEO Title H1 Captions Tagging Cross-grouping Comments Sharing ALT text Optimal linking hierarchies Date Taken & Page Views displayed

2006 Steps for Optimization of Images Have good quality pictures to use. Pictures with good contrast tend to work better. Be broad in experimenting with subject matter for pictures intended to drive traffic and conversions. Ex: Factories might show steps in product manufacture; B&Bs might show furniture & decorative art in addition to details on their rooms; Restaurants might show picturesque views or special event rooms;

2006 Steps to Optimize Images Through Flickr Add a unique title, appropriate to the image. Add a description for the photo, or even write an article to go with the image. ALWAYS tag your image with keywords! Be specific, and add as many apropos terms as possible/reasonable. Make photos publicly viewable. Consider loose licensing for your pix – share!

2006 Steps to Optimize in Flickr (cont’d) If the photo is location specific – geotag the picture. If taking many location specific pix, consider using a camera that has built-in GPS, allowing photos to be automatically geotagged within the EXIF data. Create thematic sets for your photos, and add each pic to the set(s) appropriate for it. Search through Flickr Groups for groups that would be interested in or thematically related to your photo. Join these groups and add your photo to them. (Note: new penalty for groups requiring links!) Use Flickr to host pix for your blog articles.

2006 Steps to Optimize in Flickr (cont’d) Link over to each of your Flickr photo pages from your website, OR Post your Flickr pix directly on your site pages, hyperlinked back to the photo’s page in Flickr. Add links into the description fields of your Flickr photo pages back to related pages on your site. Ex: “This view from tables at our Restaurant” Post as many pictures as possible into Flickr – more pictures will result in more traffic, and more traffic can result in more conversions.

2006 Steps to Optimize in Flickr (cont’d) Post each picture’s page over to del.ici.us, using handy submission links at bottom of photo page. If you’re targeting high popularity keywords, try experimenting with re-uploading your pix, since image freshness might affect relevancy. If you are photo-blogging, add a Digg link at the end of your text. Sometimes, add a note directly onto a region of the photo – particularly humorous notes. These invite users to comment/participate.

2006 Google’s Enhanced Image Search New Google Webmaster Tools option:

2006 Enhanced Image Search Based on Image Labeler Google’s Image Labeler obtains better image keyword data collected through a sort of game:

2006 This Presentation This presentation and the Photo Sharing Comparison Chart will be available at: