An alt-tag is the alternative text that is connected to a picture/graphic on a web page. This tag is exposed when someone rolls their mouse over the picture/graphic or they provide text when a photo cannot be displayed. The alt-tag should do two things:
- Express what the picture is about
- Contain a keyword/keyword phrase (no stuffing!)
Alt Tags can:
- Give a destination of a hyperlinked image
- Help people with various disabilities
- Give important information to people that turn graphics off and those who can only surf the Web with text-only browsers
- Help people find the destination they need when viewing a site over a slow connection. The text can allow visitors to make navigation choices before graphics are displayed
When spiders scan your web site they are looking at the source page, so they are not going to see the pictures on your site, but they can see what you name the pictures.
If your site is about Sarasota lawn care services and you have a picture of your logo you do not want to label that photo “our logo”. You want to name it “Sarasota lawn care services”. The search engines are looking at the coding on your source page and the keywords within the coding. Naming your images a keyword phrase helps your optimization because it gives you another opportunity to support your optimization strategy.
[...] the search engine spiders scan your site they will look at the keyword list and then the copy, alt-tags, anchor text, title-tag and meta description to see if the words in your list are also in the other [...]
Thank you for the information!
[...] What is an Alt-tag? [...]
Thanks for that info, trying to get my site right!!