One aspect of search that doesn't get discussed often enough is image search. It's such a huge part of search and the daily habits of web surfers all over the world, it's amazing how little attention is actually paid to it when it comes to marketing and optimization. Have tips for optimizing for image search? 
On Google there are hundreds of millions of image searches every day. Eric Enge, President of
Why Image Search is So Important
If the above information wasn't enough to convince you of the importance of image search, consider this. When images appear in blended search results (such as Google's universal search), the images affect what is clicked on the results page. Enge says an eye tracking study proved this, but it makes perfect sense if you think about it. The image is obviously going to catch your eye, regardless if it's the top result or the 5th.
Todd Schwartz, Group Product Manager for
Tips for ranking in Image Search
In a post about I cited some tips 
Pittman says it's no longer just about looking at tags and stuff, at least at Google. "We now use computer vision and search to find similar images, object recognition, and facial recognition," he says. "We look at everything such as exposure data to help determine the quality of an image. If your image quality is low your photos will not rank as high. If you make only a thumbnail of an image it won't rank as well as a larger image of the same subject." (Emphasis added.)
Back in June, Google 
This was just a research paper, and not a Google product, but one can only imagine where this research will lead with regards to how Google handles image searches.
The image filters that search engines use are worth paying attention to. If you're trying to sell products especially, it could help to consider where you want your images to rank. Google lets users search images by size, type (face, photo, clip art, line drawing), and color (full color, black and white, specific color).
Bing lets users browse results by size, layout, color, style, and people. That is in addition to the query-specific options you get.
As far as regular web searches, Bing and Google both present a number of options for users to refine their searches. Bing of course has the explore window, which for many queries, provides multiple categories. Google has its search options. Images are included in that.
Just like with any content, there is always concern that stolen material will rank higher than the original source. Pitman was asked about this at SES with regards to images. He said that image search ranking is largely dependant on how often that image is clicked on for the search query being done. He says Google is trying to combat "hotlink spam."
Social Media and Images
Social media accounts for a huge amount of the pictures on the web. Not only do you have sites like Picasa, but there are so many people uploading so many photos to Facebook and MySpace, not to mention apps like just as in regular search. People want up-to-the-minute information, and that often comes in the form of images. Some real-time search engines are reputation management factor. Real-time search helps in this regard, when you're trying to protect your reputation, but good old-fashioned Google searches are vital too.
"Think about the pictures that your employees are putting up on social sites," says Liana Evans, Director of Social Media at
Social media has a direct relationship with search rankings too. Read up on that Insights for Search analytical tool now includes image search data. This could be a very useful tool for anyone looking to improve their performance in image search.
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