Using ALT attributes smartly from the Google Webmaster Central blog has a new video from Matt Cutts on how to properly label your images so that Google Image search can properly rank them for relevant searches.

In short, Matt recommends using a short but descriptive alt tag within the image source tag. Matt adds that you can name the image file something descriptive as well, such as cat-yarn.jpg, to describe a picture of a cat playing with a ball of yarn, but it is not necessary when using an alt (alternative) tag.

Here is the video that provides more detail from Matt:

Related Topics: Google: Images | Google: SEO

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz