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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Q and A: Is it ok to use an alt tag for every image for accessibility purposes?

Dear Kalena...

Your newsletter reply to one visitor included: "I would also avoid using more than 2 or 3 alt tags on a single page if you can help it." I designed and manage a site for a visually impaired friend who writes children's books: www.gate.net/~labooks/francesindex.html

Especially for her site, I notice how her text reader (JAWS) handles the page. It was my impression that I should have an alt tag for every image so a text reader could let visually impaired visitors know what was there. I wasn't really thinking about what the search engines want. What should I do about this?

You also mentioned using only 3 or 4 words in the tag. On my site, the picture is often a book cover. For example, I have put in the tag: "Click cover to order The Buggy That Boogied Away." Should that be changed to "Click cover to order" or to an abbreviated form of the title? (Some titles are longer than this one.) Again, I'm thinking about text readers such as JAWS rather than search engines.

Thanks
Betsy

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Betsy

Don't worry about a thing. When you say "I wasn't really thinking about what the search engines want", you're right on the money. You were thinking primarily about the user and they are THE most important consideration when it comes to designing a web site.

It's perfectly fine to add an alt img tag to every image if you are doing it primarily for accessibility purposes. My prior post was really aimed at persons wanting to add alt tags primarily for search engines. As long as the alt tags are not excessively stuffed with keywords, it shouldn't be a problem to include longer ones, especially where it makes sense to do so, such as the use of full book titles.

Do whatever makes the most sense for the user and you should be fine.

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Q and A: Is there a practical word limit for alt image text?

Dear Kalena...

Is there a limit to how many words are practical within alt image text? I'm not talking about stuffing it with junk but having a text of maybe 5-7 words.

David

Kalena's Answer:

Dear David

There is no hard and fast rule about this, but I would recommend no more than say 3 or 4 words. The text should also be an accurate description of the image itself, not just a bunch of unrelated keywords. This is to ensure it passes spam filters and also makes sense to visually impaired visitors. I would also avoid using more than 2 or 3 alt tags on a single page if you can help it.


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