Web Design and SEO Blog

SEO Tip: Effective Use of the ALT Attribute

Images on your web page can help your SEO if you use the ALT Attribute correctly. 

The ALT attribute is used to supply text to describe an image on a web page.  This is helpful for visually impaired people using screen readers and it can also be helpful to search engines.

When you view the source of a web page that contains an image, you will see code that looks something like <img src="pic.jpg" alt="abc" />  The "img" and " src" must always be included but sometimes the "alt" gets left off, has a blank value, or has text that isn't really helpful for screen readers or search engines.

The alt text should always describe the photo or image but it should also be carefully worded to include keywords.  For example, if the web page is for Bob's Farmers Market in Raleigh, NC and the image is a photo of strawberries, don't just have alt="photo" or alt="fruit" but something like alt="Strawberries from Bob's Farmers Market in Raleigh, NC".  You're not only helping the visually impaired understand what the photo is but you're also giving Google something worth indexing.

James
Spidle Webs Web Design - Website design, development, search engine optimization and pay-per-click campaigns.