Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

An "Alt Text=" tag is an HTML option used along with an image on a Web page. The original intent for the tag was to provide an "alternate text" description of the image so that visually impaired people using speech software could understand the image. A second intent was to provide a text message in the event an image failed to load on the viewer`s computer.


Many Web development tools include a very easy-to-use dialog box, which then offers the option to fill in text for this tag, or to leave it blank. Apparently, many turnkey site building applications leave it blank by default.

We have a topic, at the moment, where a community member is working on putting in some useful information to these Alt Text tags. But what IS "useful information?"

On our site, we use the tags for two reasons. The main one is to emphasize certain key phrases and words that don`t easily fit into the actual content on the page. For example, we sell "signal" flags. But many people don`t type well, and tend to type "singal" flags into a query box.

We could (and do) use our keywords meta tag to include typos and misspellings, but that`s only one instance. We tend to include the typo at least one or two additional times in the alt text for some of the images on any given page.

The secondary, but just as useful way to work with these tags is to get your site noticed in Google Images. A computer (obviously) can`t "see" a picture and interpret it to mean anything. Unless you have a text description of a picture, all that the search engine can do is read the file name, or perhaps a folder listing, and maybe even some of the surrounding text content. Why make it so hard?

By putting in key words and phrases to the alt-text tags, we`re finding that we improve our visibility not only in the Web search results, but in Images search results.

Some people argue that the alt-text tags should be an actual description of the image itself. So if you have a "Home" button image, the tag should be something like, "Image of Home button." I`d argue that this is a boring application of a great SEO opportunity. Why not have "Home button for key word site and key phrase?"

For instance, we use an eBay graphic logo to link with our feedback page on eBay. Below the graphic we have a short text statement, "Click here to see our feedback on eBay." That`s fine, but all it does it talks about clicking and eBay, and there`s an image doing nothing for us.

If an image is going to get itself onto a page, it`s going to have to work for a living---that`s my philosophy. :-) So for the alt text of that graphic, we might say something like, "Signal flags reviews and comments on eBay." It`s just a little graphic, and most people wouldn`t even notice it as a "graphic image." But it still has that tag option, and search engines will read whatever text is there.

CraigL,
You are correct the Alt tag (attribute)only serves two purposes
1. for the Visual Impared
2. To give the image a name incase it doesn`t display correctly.

Now there is really no rule of thumb that says that you should enter the name of the image, Instead why not embed "Keywords to your image" for example your "signal Flags" well if the image is a signal flag why not use the keyword "Signal flags" or "We specialize in selling Navy Signal Flags" to be honest I use them for keywords after all images are considered part of your "web content".
The only rule that applies is "If you want to follow, w3c.org html standardization that you use the ALT tags. Although, it is not a requirement or technical specification, you are making your web site more "User Friendly and at the same time Multi-browser compatible". For more information regarding "ALT TAGS" Please read the article



-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

Consider the number of images that serve no actual purpose, as mentioned in the article. There are small graphics used to build a border, separater, or other display item. Those images also offer fertile ground for keyword alt text.

I think that anything you put into your design serves it actual purpose, whether you`re rounding off corners or adding a border, that image is serving its purpose it`s helping your sites aesthetics. And yes its good ground for keywords.


-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

LOL! Um...I meant that a border or border corner doesn`t act as a link, and usually has no visual content other than as a visual element. It`s like a graphic bullet, also mentioned in the article you reference. The bullet itself is an image, and can use alternate SEO text, even though nobody would think twice about magnifying the bullet to see what an amazing image it is. Yes, of course it serves a purpose. We use graphic bullets ourselves, because they`re cool.

Order buttons, borders, corners, all serve a purpose as an element. I`m saying that they also can serve a second purpose as an SEO opportunity, that`s all.

Yes they can... But if you`re creating bullets most of the times your CSS style sheet is the one that references the image so you can`t do much to add alt tags to that element.


-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

True

Shame on both of you!  Bad accessibility practices to boost SEO!
The main purpose of alt text is to describe the image and its relevance to the content.  This should naturally have keywords in it if it is not a design element.  But this is important not just for the visually impaired.  Many people still use text-based browsers (like Lynx) or turn off image downloading to speed up page loading. These users (academics or non-broadband usually) are only interested in finding information that is text-based, but if an image is important to the content, it needs to be described as such, and if it is critical to the content, it needs to have a `long description` in addition to the alt text.
Design elements should not have alt text that describes what it is - or be stuffed with keywords.  It will skew the keyword ratio, and if you are selling shoes, why would you want to take rank placement for the term `rounded corner` or `square bullet` or dilute your own keyword density?  And stuffing the alt text with words that do not describe what it is will only frustrate text-based users that wasted their time to download an image that was not what it was described to be.
Yeah, I am old school.  Comes from being around when a 56K modem was smokin`.

Ah...those pesky academics... 
Bottom line is that we`re talking about e-commece sites, here, for the most part, right? I can relate to the old-school ideas, and I too was around using a 32KB modem and Windows 3.x, along with a Pentium 660MHz. I just hated to upgrade from that...(sigh).

That being said, an e-commerce site has all kinds of images that improve the look of the site, are psychologically attractive or persuasive, and which wouldn`t at all detract from a text-only experience if someone were visually impaired. Why not use those for keyphrases? In particular, phrases or keywords that are only proximately related to the main idea.

To use the selling shoes example: you`d want your actual content to be highly relevant to shoes and styles, along with footwear, boots, and shoelaces. But if you were to spend time developing content for shoe polish, rubber soles, hiking boots, and warm feet, it would be problematic.

Isn`t that what we are doing? we are describing the image in an elaborate way. Why be brief when you can explain a little bit about the image. For example lets say you use an image of an ocean. Why only call it "Ocean" and not, beautiful ocean with blue skys, light blue water?
you are not saturation your keyword density, hopefully you`ll be smart and not make the common mistake that everyone does when Optimizing a web site.
Here is what everyone is doing: my widget, my widget green, my widget red.. this is a no-no, that`s a saturation. The proper way to do it is: my widget, green,red, and when customer types in my widgets in a search engine, then he will get a list of your widgets, hopefully your since you took the time to optimize the site.



-------------------------

Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net