I’ve read that some search engines use a combination of webpage content, titles, and alt tags to determine the legitimacy of the webpage and its search engine ranking, so with that in mind I have a few questions regarding alt tags.
Should alt tags be capitalized? If so, just the first letter or all of them?
Can alt tags be multiple words with spaces?
Are there universally accepted terms to describe different images? For example, if you use an image of a lawn, should the alt tag be “Lawn Photo” or “Lawn Image”? What if it’s an illustration? Should it then be labeled, “Lawn Graphic” or “Lawn Illustration”?
How descriptive should you be with alt tags? For example, should I call an image “Lawn Image” or Green Lawn Image with Flowers".
If you’re designing a service webpage for a landscaping company and you use a photo of a lawn for the header image should the alt tag be, “Lawn Image” or “Service Image”?
Should the company name ever be included in the alt tag description (i.e. Company Name Logo vs Logo)?
I’m sure I’m over thinking this but I want to make sure I develop good alt tag naming convention habits, especially if it helps with SEO. Thanks!
Should alt tags be capitalized? If so, just the first letter or all of them?
Not important
Can alt tags be multiple words with spaces?
Yes
Are there universally accepted terms to describe different images? For example, if you use an image of a lawn, should the alt tag be “Lawn Photo” or “Lawn Image”? What if it’s an illustration? Should it then be labeled, “Lawn Graphic” or “Lawn Illustration”?
Depends on the use - if it was a picture of your Father cutting the lawn then I would say so. If just to show a pic of a lawn then a more generic description. By all means add into the description whether it is a ‘photo of dad on the lawn’ or a ‘drawing of dad on the lawn’
How descriptive should you be with alt tags? For example, should I call an image “Lawn Image” or Green Lawn Image with Flowers”.
Goes back to context. What message is the pic supposed to convey visually?
If you’re designing a service webpage for a landscaping company and you use a photo of a lawn for the header image should the alt tag be, “Lawn Image” or “Service Image”?
I think I would use something like ‘a typical lawn that we maintain’
Should the company name ever be included in the alt tag description (i.e. Company Name Logo vs Logo)?
Visitors depend on the alt tag to give a valid description of the image or the image link in order to understand the page if they are not able to see the image.
That is the main purpose of the alt attribute so it should be kept as short as possible to convey that message.
Because of this there is limited merit in trying to stuff your Alt Tags and I would be concentrating on other areas to provide proper web page content.
There is some thought that 80 - 120 chars is acceptable length for what is essentially a description of a picture.
I don’t want to sound insensitive, but is there any value to Alt Tags other than for people with visual impairment? I had read in SEO Tips that Alt Tags were sometimes used by search engines for page ranking purposes.
They are used for that, but they are not given much weight. Google, like any other visually-disabled visitor, is curious about what’s in your pictures, but it can only go so far based on what you say they contain. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Google doesn’t exactly trust you to tell the truth about what’s there.
Walter
On Jan 31, 2012, at 12:55 PM, RavenManiac wrote:
I don’t want to sound insensitive, but is there any value to Alt Tags other than for people with visual impairment? I had read in SEO Tips that Alt Tags were sometimes used by search engines for page ranking purposes.