Improve Search Engine Ranking with Alt Tags
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Did you know that search engines do not “see†your website graphics? That’s right. You can have the most adorable category buttons in the world, but they do not count for content or keywords for the search engine spiders because the search engine does not know what each button or graphic is. Search engines read words, not pictures.
If your website sells candles, potpourri, and fixins, then your meta tags most likely contain the words candles, potpourri, and fixins. In order to improve your search engine ranking, the search engine spider needs to find those meta tag words on your site. You probably have category buttons for candles, potpourri, and fixins. However, the search engine does not KNOW what those buttons say. Those words are simply printed on the button graphic, which is simply a picture url. So the spider will not “read†them and they will not be recognized and/or counted.
Aside from assisting in your search engine optimization, there are other purposes for alt text. Blind people may utilize text-to-speech converters so they can “hear” the image. If you use the alt text alt=”", that tells the converter that the particular image contains no information. If you omit the alt=”" ENTIRELY, you are asking the converter to GUESS if the particular image contains any information. There is a very helpful article by Stephen Poley entitled “The Alt Attribute in HTML.” Stephen’s article shows you alt text common errors and appropriate alt text syntax for different uses and situations.
You need to add alt text to your images, not just to aid in your search engine optimization, but to assist others as well. Most website owners like their category buttons and want to keep them for the aesthetics of the site. That’s fine, but some slight code modification is required.
The code for your graphics or buttons will look something like this:
“img src=”/images/cake.gif” Let’s say this image is about a red velvet cake
This is the revised image code for the above image:
“img src=/images/cake.gif” alt=”red velvet cake”
When you alter the code of your images by adding alt text, the search engines can “read†them, which is good SEO practice. The blind people can “hear” them, which is considering other people’s needs. Some people like to use the Google Image Search Feature. If you have your images labeled with good alt text, Google will show them in their Image Search Feature. When surfers click on your images that appear in the Google Image Search Feature, you get more site traffic.
Adding alt image text to your image code is a good practice to start now. After a while, adding alt text will become second nature. This is just another simple, effective way to get more traffic and increase your search engine ranking. It is ALSO a way of helping others to utilize the site and or page content via “alt text” who may not otherwise be able to view and benefit from it. Adding alt text is also good coding practice………by Laura Brown, Penney Layne Graphics