Always make sure you use alt tags as this helps with SEO.

What exactly is an Alt Tag?

Wikipedia defines an Alt Tag as: “The alt attribute is used in HTML and XHTML documents to specify text that is to be rendered when the element to which it is applied cannot be rendered. In HTML 4.01, the attribute is required for the img and area element types.”

Wikipedia actually tells us that Alt Tags are really a Misnomer. It says that:

“The alt attribute is commonly, but incorrectly, referred to as an image’s “alt tag”. It is not intended to provide “pop up” text or tooltips when a user’s mouse hovers over the image, though alt text has historically been presented in this way in some web browsers; HTML’s title attribute is intended for supplementary information that can be used in this way. (To use alt correctly and suppress the tooltip that some web browsers generate, a web author can use an empty title attribute.)”.

Alt Tags are really technically called “alt attributes”. But, let’s just call them Alt Tags because that’s what they are normally known as.

How do you use an Alt Tag?

Alt Tags are added to images, in the html code when the image is called for in the html code of the web page. The easiest thing to do is to insert the image on the page and then add or edit the alt tag.

It is important that each image on your web site contains a unique Alt Tag or “alt attribute”. The keywords used should describe the image. Try to be as specific and clear as possible.

So in terms of SEO keep in mind that the keywords in the Alt Tags are very important. They should describe what you will see in the image perfectly. If the image is an image of a red Ford Focus car, then I would use the keyword phrase “red Ford focus car” in the image’s Alt Tag. If you use multiple images on your web site, make sure for each different image you apply a different unique image Alt Tag.

Adding Alt Tags to the images on your web site is nothing new. However, there is now strong evidence that search engines are now giving more weight to Alt Tags than they are the Title Tag or even an H1 Tag on the page. You should still make sure you use proper Title Tags and H1 Tags, but more SEO value for organic search engine rankings can be gained by using proper Alt Tags than using proper Title Tags or H1 Tags.

Having your keywords in the body text of your page is important, but having your keywords in the Alt Tags is very important. Even more so than the H1 Tag or the Title Tag. So, if you are not happy with how your web site is performing lately in the organic search engine rankings, you may need to adjust your search engine optimisation efforts. In fact, if you have not done so already, you might want to take another look at all your image alt tags or alt attributes to make sure that all of the images on your web pages have the proper image alt attributes.

Quite often, one of the most overlooked and easiest to change image alt tags or alt attribute that could make a big difference is the logo image on your website’s home page. Many of us have an image as our logo but many forget to apply suitable alt tags to it.