Article Index
Use Image ALT Tags
Use ALT Tags for ALL images!
But please note that an ALT tag should be relevant to the image it is about!
When, after opening an Article for editing, you select an image followed by the image editing icon in the Content Editor panel (a tree in the JCE editor), you will be presented with a number of fields, including an ALT field called Alternate Text.
For Images
Enter a short unique description - using key words if possible.
Example: a picture of a big red London bus would have the ALT tag: "big red London bus".
For SEO, ALT tags are second order (not very important) but you may wish to include one or two keywords - however, you should avoid stuffing long ALT tags with keywords; instead keep them short.
This will be of benefit to visually impaired site visitors and to search engine meta crawlers.
For Design Elements
Example: images used as backgriounds, bullet points.
Leave the ALT tag empty to avoid wasting the time of users of screen readers!
A word about image file names:
Image file names should also communicate what the image contains.
Example: big-red-london-bus.jpg is better than image3.jpg.
Still second order for SEO but good practice as it helps you manage your content.
ALT Tags and Image Links
ALT tags are more significant when images are used as hyperlinks.
When you hyperlink an image the ALT tag has the same powers as the 'anchor text' of a text link, assuming the hyperlink is to relevant content (content about what the ALT tag is referring to).
Also see the section of this Article entitled 'Use Title Tags'.
What type of image files should your website use and where should they be stored?
In their Starter Guide, Google recommend that:
- images should be stored in one easy to find directory e.g. images;
- you should use only standard image types, for example, JPEG or GIF.
IMPORTANT
Whilst Wynchcote can offer advice for how to improve your search engine ranking, we do not offer any guarantees that your rankings will improve as a result of this advice.
- Details
- Last Updated on Monday, 17 June 2013
- Written by Wynchcote
