SEO Help! Image ALT Tags??

[BarryOnline]

I'm trying to learn as much as possible about SEO in order for my website to make a good ranking in the search engines.

I've got to learn most of the important stuff & have build a site around what I've learned but I'm missing something else which should help with my SEO.

Image ALT Tags...

I'm having a little difficulty getting my head round this!

Here's an example I'd really appreciate any help with it...

I added an image to one of my web pages then looked at the code to find the image in HTML.

It looked like this -

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt=""
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">

Let me know if I've got this part right?

To add an ALT tag I put the keyword into the code? ( Example in red below )

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt="KEYWORD"
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">


Thanks

[InitialEffort]

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt="YOUR KEYWORD EX. BIG GREEN CHAIR"
src="http://yourdomain.XYZ/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">

<img width="278" height="340px" alt="YOUR KEYWORD EX. BIG GREEN CHAIR"
src="http://yourdomain.XYZ/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">

[sdkWriter]

Originally Posted by Barry$

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt="KEYWORD"
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">

Place the keyword in the alt tag as you noted above. If you have several images in one post and you're optimizing for a specific keyword, then add the qualifier. For example:

alt="refrigerator side-by-side"
alt="refrigerator wide"

One other thing you will want to fix is the URL of your JPG. When you push your html file to your server, that URL will not work, and your JPG will not be seen.

[hitman786]

Source should simply be "/images/BB23.jpg" if i am not wrong.

and yes you have to write your keywords exactly where you mentioned yourself.

[webdango]

I also often use my keywords in the name of the image as well.

Example:
keyword-phrase-01.jpg

[AnnYM]

I was looking for some help exactly on this topic. I have just started with SEO for a few clients and am trying out all the seo tools- came to know about image alt tags. Thanks a lot for this! Solves a major issue for me. I'm also looking for some help with hyperlink title tags- any idea how I can do this?

[paulgl]

Your alt tag should be exactly what the link goes to, actually.
Is that keywords? Hmmmm. Not really in many cases.
That's called keyword stuffing. I've said this before, if you
have a navigation image, don't call it keyword.jpg or alt="keyword"
it should be named navigation.jpg (or similar) and the alt should
be "navigation." Too many people think it's okay to do otherwise.
It is going against google's webmaster's recommendations.
What you name images and use as alt (which I think is an attribute, not
a tag) should be exactly what it is and what it is used for on your page.

Design for a visitor, not a search engine. Using alt in other ways than what
it was intended will not be good. I believe images can have titles. Maybe
that's a better place to keyword stuff. But it's still keyword stuffing. Alt
has got to provide accurate and useful information for your visitor.

Paul

[Kothapally Arun]

1.ALT tags are alternatives to anchor text all though the Alt tag doesn't carry as much value as normal text anchor link.

2.Also it is important that the image location URL has keyword in it.

3.Don't forget to have keywords in image file name.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Your alt tag should be exactly what the link goes to, actually.
Is that keywords? Hmmmm. Not really in many cases.
That's called keyword stuffing. I've said this before, if you
have a navigation image, don't call it keyword.jpg or alt="keyword"
it should be named navigation.jpg (or similar) and the alt should
be "navigation." Too many people think it's okay to do otherwise.
It is going against google's webmaster's recommendations.
What you name images and use as alt (which I think is an attribute, not
a tag) should be exactly what it is and what it is used for on your page.

Design for a visitor, not a search engine. Using alt in other ways than what
it was intended will not be good. I believe images can have titles. Maybe
that's a better place to keyword stuff. But it's still keyword stuffing. Alt
has got to provide accurate and useful information for your visitor.

Paul

Sorry dude, you don't understand image SEO.

[ITJobZone.biz]

The actual path given by you (in red below) wont work when you upload your file on the server.

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt=""
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">

Instead use relative path - for example if you put ur images in "images" folder which is at same diretory level as your html files you can use below code

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt=""
src="images\BB23.jpg">

2ndly related to your other query regarding Images "keywords", you are right put your keywords there.

Hope this helps

[james7]

I want to know that how much length or say characters, words are a limit for image alt tag?
And if image is not suitable for a keyword then also can we give a alt tag with our keyword or related with image?

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by yukon

Sorry dude, you don't understand image SEO.

You obviously don't understand the difference between keyword stuffing and SEO.
But, you people repeatedly come back to this forum, swearing you did nothing
wrong, and get slapped by google. Go figure.

Call an image what it is. Not to get a keyword in.

So, let me quote google.
(yes, I know. A lot of you ignore google. See above)

The alt attribute is used to describe the contents of an image file. It's important for several reasons:

* It provides Google with useful information about the subject matter of the image. We use this information to help determine the best image to return for a user's query.
* Many people-for example, users with visual impairments, or people using screen readers or who have low-bandwidth connections-may not be able to see images on web pages. Descriptive alt text provides these users with important information.

Not so good:

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt=""/>

Better:

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="puppy"/>

Best:

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="Dalmatian puppy playing fetch">

To be avoided

<img src="puppy.jpg" alt="puppy dog baby
dog pup pups puppies doggies pups litter puppies dog retriever
labrador wolfhound setter pointer puppy jack russell terrier
puppies dog food cheap dogfood puppy food"/>

Filling alt attributes with keywords ("keyword stuffing") results in a negative user experience, and may cause your site to be perceived as spam. Instead, focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. We recommend testing your content by using a text-only browser such as Lynx.

For pages that are just content with images, what is the purpose of alt tags?
To really describe the image or get keywords in? If you have a picture of
something and don't describe it, but get a keyword in, that's stuffing.

Example as way above, your navigation image. If you site is on student loans
and you have a navigation image, and you call it studentloan.jpg and use
alt="student loans" you are practicing bad behavior. Period.

Another example. You have a site about making money online and use a woman
at a computer. So, you name the image makemoneyonline.jpg and
alt="make money online" That's keyword stuffing.

Do this stuff right people, the first time. But we digress.

You want more truth about images and SEO? Let's look at another
google quote about not using idiotic images that have nothing to
do with content:

The page the image is on, and the content around the image (including any captions or image titles), provide search engines with important information about the subject matter of your image. For example, if you have a picture of a polar bear on a page about home-grown tomatoes, you'll be sending a confused message to the search engines about the subject matter of polarbear.jpg.

Now that is a solid tip on images and SEO. Too many people have useless images that
have nothing to do with content, thinking it juices up the page. Notice how they keep
talking about "subject matter of your image" as opposed to keywords?

Paul

[yukon]

Originally Posted by paulgl

You obviously don't understand the difference between keyword stuffing and SEO.
But, you people repeatedly come back to this forum, swearing you did nothing
wrong, and get slapped by google. Go figure.

Paul

Trust me you will never find a forum post anyplace on the net, of me complaining about a Google slap on me! That's a fact!

I know what I'm doing!

Every single keyword in my images are 100% related to the subject/image/page (that's called common sense). You don't need to read so much, just use your head.

Your making image seo difficult.

The Google Image spider is dumb as a rock, the only things it can understand are:

1) Image width x height
2) Filetype
3) Pixel color
4) Alt-text

No need to over complicate an easy task.

Btw, I rank on the first page (most rank #1) for all my images/keywords in the image SERPs, out of hundreds of images, on multiple sites. I practice what I preach (image seo).

[BarryOnline]

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread, it's be very informative.

[howinfo]

I found that M. Cutts on alt tag, isn’t he just relaxing to listen to.

YouTube - Matt Cutts Discusses the Importance of...

[yukon]

Originally Posted by howinfo

I found that M. Cutts on alt tag, isn’t he just relaxing to listen to.

Thanks for posting that video.

The video was made in 2007, so it goes to show that Google image search hasn't advanced a single bit in 3 years (2010).

Image SEO is about as basic as it gets...

[howinfo]

I think the Google image search is more advanced now as they can recognise some of the images without alt tag but what goes for the alt tags itself it is pretty much the same as he said in the video.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by howinfo

I think the Google image search is more advanced now as they can recognise some of the images without alt tag but what goes for the alt tags itself it is pretty much the same as he said in the video.

If the image doesn't include an alt tag, Google will scrape text from the page the image is on.

That's why it's better to include the alt tag with your image, instead of letting some software at Google decide what the image/subject is about.

[paulgl]

Having images found by google is kind of out of context.

I thought we were referring to page SEO as opposed to having
an image found by google.

If you have a polar bear image and you want people to find
your polar bear image, you call it polarbear.jpg alt="polar bear."

That's seem to be a sideline off this thread. You DON'T want
to include a polar bear image on a money making website and
call it moneymaking.jpg with alt="money making"

That my friend, is keyword stuffing.

Does this sound familiar? "I've been doing X for years. oops!
Now google slaps me! What gives?"

Go against google webmaster guidelines and you are playing with fire.
Getting burned later hurts a lot more than getting burned now.

Paul

[howinfo]

Originally Posted by paulgl

. You DON'T want
to include a polar bear image on a money making website and
call it moneymaking.jpg with alt="money making"



Paul

On our article directory when an author download their image they can name it: money making make money online how to make money money making tips.jpg and then the alt tag will be alt = author photo

Will that be consider as keyword stuffing or in this instance Google will just look at the alt tag.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Having images found by google is kind of out of context.

I thought we were referring to page SEO as opposed to having
an image found by google.

If you have a polar bear image and you want people to find
your polar bear image, you call it polarbear.jpg alt="polar bear."

That's seem to be a sideline off this thread. You DON'T want
to include a polar bear image on a money making website and
call it moneymaking.jpg with alt="money making"

That my friend, is keyword stuffing.

Does this sound familiar? "I've been doing X for years. oops!
Now google slaps me! What gives?"

Go against google webmaster guidelines and you are playing with fire.
Getting burned later hurts a lot more than getting burned now.

Paul

Oh, so a polar bear can't earn a living now, lol.

I agree that example just doesn't make any sense, to stuff irrelevant keywords.

The whole point of getting an image to rank is to use alt-text that is relevant to the web page the image is located.

This will help strengthen your position/rank in the text search.

The thing about image search is most webmasters act like it doesn't exist, or maybe they don't understand how to name an image? This makes it easy for the rest of us to rank for whatever keywords you need.

I've got a few WH tricks that no YT video will tell you about, gets my images ranked #1 for multiple keywords in Google Image search. I might save that for a WSO.

The basics are here in this thread, & should get anyone on page #1 in image search.

[dop]

yes,you are right

[clark.angus]

Originally Posted by Barry$

I'm trying to learn as much as possible about SEO in order for my website to make a good ranking in the search engines.

I've got to learn most of the important stuff & have build a site around what I've learned but I'm missing something else which should help with my SEO.

Image ALT Tags...

I'm having a little difficulty getting my head round this!

Here's an example I'd really appreciate any help with it...

I added an image to one of my web pages then looked at the code to find the image in HTML.

It looked like this -

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt=""
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">

Let me know if I've got this part right?

To add an ALT tag I put the keyword into the code? ( Example in red below )

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt="KEYWORD"
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg">


Thanks

<img style="width: 278px; height: 340px;" alt=""
src="file:///C:/Users/Desktop/PRODJECT%20FOLDER/Squeeze/images/BB23.jpg" />
see what was the mistake

[tabasco]

Hi all, I love reading about SEO but at the end of the day, after putting into practice what I learn and read, I just trust my empirical experiences. So, based on my experiences, yes alt for sure is important, HOWEVER on 1 of my sites I could not change alt image tag (of course I could have by paying outsources, but I did not and left it as it was) so I just put keywords in the file name of image uploaded, not caring about alt tag... so name of image on server was KEYWORD.jpg and alt "" ... If I now make a gg research with my keywords, I find my images and well ranked ! SO what I think is that you just need to put eitheir your kw in the alt tag OR in the image file you load on the server. Please share your thinkings about that.