Q and A: Do alt image attributes have an impact on search engine rankings?
Dear Kalena...
I have a question regarding SEO.
How much of an effect if any, do Alt Img Attributes have on search engine rankings? Some articles say Alt Img Attributes have little to no effect on search engine rankings, while other articles say that if used properly they can have a positive effect on search engine rankings.
Can you please shed some light on this debate? I'd really appreciate it,
thanks
Nick
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Nick
The use of Alt Img attributes is important from a usability perspective, more so than any other reason. To ensure vision-impaired visitors (or those browsing with images turned off) can understand what your images represent, they should have alt text associated with them. This is not vital for design-related images, such as borders or spacers, but more so for product images, graphical headings and such. Now, there was a time when the use of Alt attributes contributed to a site's search relevancy. But thanks to abuse by webmasters over the years, the significance of the Atl attribute contribution to the overall ranking algorithm has reduced dramatically and it is also one of the areas search engines look at carefully for evidence of spam.
So what does that mean for persons optimizing their sites? It means you should still use Alt attributes but approach them from a usability perspective and forget any assumed search engine value. For example, if you sell shoes and you have 3 images of different shoes on a page, you should use simple Alt text to describe each in a way that a vision-impaired person could understand: "alt=blue suede shoes", "alt=black leather loafers", "alt=white strappy sandles". The wrong way to approach the same situation would be: "alt=shoes, shoes shoes", "alt=cheap cheap shoes", "alt=best shoes in the world". The first example is descriptive and clear and could also contribute to a page's relevancy for related keyword searches. The latter is non-descriptive, keyword-stuffed and self-promotional. It would be much more likely to trip spam filters.
Hope this helps :-)
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I have a question regarding SEO.
How much of an effect if any, do Alt Img Attributes have on search engine rankings? Some articles say Alt Img Attributes have little to no effect on search engine rankings, while other articles say that if used properly they can have a positive effect on search engine rankings.
Can you please shed some light on this debate? I'd really appreciate it,
thanks
Nick
Kalena's Answer:
Dear Nick
The use of Alt Img attributes is important from a usability perspective, more so than any other reason. To ensure vision-impaired visitors (or those browsing with images turned off) can understand what your images represent, they should have alt text associated with them. This is not vital for design-related images, such as borders or spacers, but more so for product images, graphical headings and such. Now, there was a time when the use of Alt attributes contributed to a site's search relevancy. But thanks to abuse by webmasters over the years, the significance of the Atl attribute contribution to the overall ranking algorithm has reduced dramatically and it is also one of the areas search engines look at carefully for evidence of spam.
So what does that mean for persons optimizing their sites? It means you should still use Alt attributes but approach them from a usability perspective and forget any assumed search engine value. For example, if you sell shoes and you have 3 images of different shoes on a page, you should use simple Alt text to describe each in a way that a vision-impaired person could understand: "alt=blue suede shoes", "alt=black leather loafers", "alt=white strappy sandles". The wrong way to approach the same situation would be: "alt=shoes, shoes shoes", "alt=cheap cheap shoes", "alt=best shoes in the world". The first example is descriptive and clear and could also contribute to a page's relevancy for related keyword searches. The latter is non-descriptive, keyword-stuffed and self-promotional. It would be much more likely to trip spam filters.
Hope this helps :-)
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Labels: alt img tags, search engine rankings, search engine spam
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