Image Alt Tags have been the go-to method of optimization for images for quite some time now. After adding alt tags, many property management teams will simply call it good.

That's not a critical error by any means, but it's like leaving proverbial money on the table. Google and other search engines are unable to interpret images on their own so they rely on signals from us. Image alt tags are one way webmasters let search engines know the kind of material that is contained in a picture, but why stop there if you don't have to? There are a few other things you can do to help the search engines understand the media on your apartment community website.

File Names

How many pictures do you have in your computer with names like IMG_0666 or something? How helpful is that title in determining what the picture is about? If you, a member of the most intellectually advanced species on the planet, can't immediately determine what is in the picture that you most likely took yourself, then why would you expect a machine to be able to? As search engines crawl the code of your page, they read and analyze the file names your photos have. So tell Google what your webpage contains by incorporating strategic keywords into image file names.

Don't forget about G+

Now that you've changed the file names of all the photography on your apartment community website, go and do the same thing for pictures on your Google+ page. This serves the same function on G+ as it does on your website itself: it provides another signal for the terms which your site should be indexed. And as we know, Google loves it when you use their products, so it's in our best interest to take advantage of any SEO technique they allow on their own platform.

Keyword Captions

After renaming and re-uploading pictures on your G+ page, you have another SEO opportunity that many people miss: photo captions. By including targeted keywords in photo captions, you offer one more way to directly tell Google what your website is about! This is particularly helpful for geo-targeted keywords, or keywords that have a regional modifier such as a specific city or state. Because of Google's current focus on local search geo-targeted keywords are incredibly powerful; especially for those in multifamily housing.

The Devil is in the Details

Another little trick you can use to optimize your Google+ page is to add the location to the photo details. Select a picture the way you did for the last step but instead click 'Photo Details'. At the top, select  'Add a Location' and, well, I trust you to figure out the rest.

Wrap it up

So now that you know how to fully optimize the images on your website and Google+ pages, what are you waiting for? Go do it! You've got at least a dozen pictures to rename and reload. You've got captions to optimize and even a great number of photo locations to update. Granted, it's time-consuming, but once completed, your images will be fully optimized for online apartment search. 

By: Patrick T. Mower