How to Rank in Google Image Search: A Practical Checklist

Image search is a real traffic source, and ranking comes down to a handful of signals you control.

Alt text that describes the image — see alt text for SEO.
Descriptive filename with hyphens — see image file naming.
Relevant surrounding text and a caption near the image.
Right format and a fast, [compressed file](/compress-image) — speed is a ranking factor.
Correct dimensions (not a giant image scaled down) — see file size vs dimensions.
Structured data (Product, Recipe) where relevant, so images appear with rich results.
An [image sitemap](/expert/article/image-sitemap-for-seo) for discovery.

Google can't "see" your image like a person — it relies on these textual and technical clues. Give it all of them and your images get found.