Why Do You Think Images Are Chosen for Featured Snippets or "About"

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   eugbugposted 14 months ago

   Unlike all the others, traffic has been climbing for this article for the past two years, possibly because of my infographic (Which is now pushed down the page because we're not allowed to use images with text. Is that an issue as regards whether Google will choose the image for a snippet?)
   Why do you think Google puts articles in the featured snippet or "about" section? Is it based purely on the content of an article, or do they like pretty pictures, possibly preferring ones with information content? In the "about" section in the desktop search results below, my infographic is on the bottom left.
   
   
   
   
   

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   melbelposted 14 months ago

   What day did you first notice your downward trend? There is a big algo update out that could have affected it.

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      eugbugposted 14 months agoin reply to this

      The drop at the end of the trend graph was just traffic for yesterday (Wednesday) that wasn't complete yet.

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   EricDockettposted 14 months ago

   One thing we can think about when it comes to images is how we choose to use the caption field. On HubPages, the image caption also serves as the image alt tag. In most CMS, they are separate fields (really, they should be).
   
   The alt tag is used by screen readers so visually impaired people can understand what is in an image, and it serves to "fill in the blanks" when an image doesn't load correctly. It also tells search engines—which historically had trouble understanding images—what is in an image.
   
   That puts us in a weird position as writers because the alt tag should literally explain what is in an image, but a caption is usually more light and narrative.
   
   So, writing captions as alt tags (man riding blue bike on the beach) rather than as captions (Never miss a day at the beach!) might help search engines better understand your image and might make them show up as featured snippets more often.
   
   Keep in mind that this is only one thing G does to figure out an image. Having logical, related text around the image can help too. I also think, that as AI becomes more common, none of this will matter anymore.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 14 months agoin reply to this

      I agree with what Eric says about alt tags.
      
      However, once AI takes over, the description of his example image will read: "six-fingered man riding an infeasible three-pedaled blue bike on a beach with unbelievably unnatural-looking sand"!!
      
      Seriously, though, I think like always, Google makes it hard to work out the exact criteria the algo uses for text snippets and images. It did seem easier in the past to gain them but I suspect that the competition is the main culprit.
      
      I've noticed that even the editors struggle to achieve the dramatic ranking results that once happened after a premium edit. I don't think that's the editors' fault but rather the competition and Google changes.
      
      Some years back, I had a few articles that went from 50 views/day to over 1,000 after premium editing. I had more text snippets appearing at the top of the rankings. That doesn't seem to happen now.

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      eugbugposted 14 months agoin reply to this

      The algorithm reads overlaid text on images too as far as I know.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 14 months agoin reply to this

         There are two questions. Firstly, whether Google can read overlaid text and secondly, whether it matters for SEO/ranking reasons.
         
         The general consensus is that the first answer is yes and the second answer is no.
         
         It's perfectly possible that Google can, say, read the overlaid text but essentially ignores it and just uses the alt text/description for SEO, images/snippets etc.
         
         It's a complicated and contentious area, though. I don't think there's any full certainty. https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/5909/did- … -rankings/

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         EricDockettposted 14 months agoin reply to this

         Probably, but I've never seen it discussed as a ranking signal. Could be.

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