Question about overoptimization and images "alt"
-
Hello,
I own a shop with lots of categories, in each category there is a lot of pictures, some have already alt, must I put the attribute alt in all images, it would be 100% beneficial for my site or could would I be over-optimizing the site?
Thank you
-
Nadir-
I'd always recommend putting in an Alt tag on images, to describe what the image shows.
The Alt tag was developed originally for text-only browsers or visually impaired visitors to a website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_attribute
According to the W3C's accessibility site:
http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility
"The power of the Web is in its universality.
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide WebAccording to the w3Schools.com site, the Alt tag (attribute) is one of two required attributes for the tag:
The tag has two required attributes: src and alt.
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_img.aspThe Mozilla Develper forum says that setting the Alt tag "attribute to the empty string indicates that this image is not a key part of the content"
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/ImgThe latest version of Dreamweaver won't allow you to add an image onto a static HTML page, without using an Alt tag either.
So, yes, you should try to always use the Alt tag, in my opinion.
That said, Alt tags shouldn't be stuffed with keywords. If you do that, it will hurt you in the long run.
Best practice is to describe the image.
Hope this helps,
-- Jeff -
The problem with keywords on ecommerce sites is there tends to be lots of images of similar things and people end up using the same keywords over and over, which brings down their value as an indicator of what the image is. Sure it can help but as page-level factors start weighing less and less and keywords loose footing as a factor, keywords in alt tags become an even lower priority. My opinion is you're better off having fun with creating your alt tags than tying yourself to using keywords in each of them.
-
Hi Chris,
I've heard for eCommerce websites that appropriately naming your image file and alt text are key to good onsite optimisation. As eCommerce sites have little content on core pages, particularly category pages, search engines rely on the filename and alt text to discern keywords. Is there truth to this or has this become outmoded?
-
Nadir,
The alt tag is your opportunity to describe the picture to those who cannot see it because they have their images turned off. Think of the purpose the image has on the page visually and then try to boil that purpose down to a short phrase that achieves the same purpose. They don't carry a lot of weight algorithmically so don't feel tied to keywords when writing them.
-
Making sure that each image has alt text would not be considered over-optimisation. With a site like yours, I would suggest using alt tag keywords that appropriately describes the image, instead of using specific targeted keywords too heavily. When creating your alt text, consider what the user might be searching for - and perhaps do a little research - but make sure that the text you're using really is directly relevant to the image, as opposed to the overall landing page.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Site IA considering a "Resources" section
I'm working on a resources section for our website and I'm wondering the best way to handle my sites information architecture. The resources section houses things like webinars (both upcoming and recorded), case studies, ebooks, etc. Should things like webinars and case studies be considered supporting content to our main topics? For example we have a product that manages Rebates. So we have a page on our site dedicated to "Rebates". Would a webinar or case study about our Rebates software be grouped with "Rebates" or would it be grouped by content/resource type? So for example a breadcrumb could look like this: Home > Rebates > Rebates Webinar or Home > Webinars > Rebates Webinar Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | Brando160 -
Screaming Frog - What are your "go to" tasks you use it for?
So, I have just purchased screaming frog because I have some specific tasks that need completing. However, looking at Screaming Frog generally, there is so much information I was wondering for those who use it, what are the top key tasks you use it for. I mean what are your "go to" things you like to check, that perhaps are not covered by the Moz Crawl reports. Just looking for things I perhaps hadn't thought about, that this might be useful for.
On-Page Optimization | | TheWebMastercom0 -
Rel="Canonical"
Hi!, We´ve just launched a new website and on this web we are using a lot Call to Actions on every page of the web and all of this CTA`s goes to the same Landing Page. (Ej: http://www.landing page.com) The problem comes when Google says this Landing Page is duplicate content because we are using some parameters like, for instance, http://www.landing page.com/?fuente=Soporteensalesforce So now we have just 1 Landing Page but Google sees 13 pages, because of this parameters and Moz alerted me that Google is seeing it as duplicate content. Yesterday I put this on the head of the only Landing Page we have so Google can see it in the proper way, as just one landing, but I don´t know if it is enough or should I do anything else? What I put on the Head: Hope someone can help me about this because I´ve tried to find a solution and this is the only thing that came up to me, and don´t know if it´s the right thing. Thanks for your time!
On-Page Optimization | | Manuel_LeadClic0 -
Does Google penalize a page with the image tag with alt and without src?
Hi, I am curious whether Google penalizes a page with the image tag with a value in the "alt" attribute and without one in the "src" attribute? Would this count as stuffing? Sometimes you cannot put an image but you would like to get SEO benefit by having a keyword in an image?
On-Page Optimization | | Plivo0 -
Website was given to someone else, does a "move" or something need to be performed in Webmaster Tools?
A website was given to another person for their business. None of the original webpages remain they have all been removed. There is nothing on that domain now. Is there some notification that needs to be made in webmaster tools to make Google aware of this?
On-Page Optimization | | will21120 -
How to "on page" seo a small local service business - particularly headers
First off, let me apologize if this question is posted elsewhere, worded differently. I've looked around quite a bit and have been unable to find the answer. Basically, we are a small web design firm just getting our feet with with SEO. Most of our clients, especially initially, will be quite small, local, service businesses. For example: and electrician, a pet sitter, a retail printing and map store, a surgeon etc. Almost all of their sites will follow a basic "business card on the web" format... Home Page - About Us - Testimonials - Rates - FAQ - Contact Us - Etc So, from what I've read about on-page optimization, making sure my keywords are in the title, header, body, and meta description is one of the easiest and quickest things we can do for our clients. This is a straightforward concept for me when applied to the homepage. For example, take the local pet sitting business. Her keywords are: Pet sitting, Dog walking, and the city we live in, Anytown USA. So, I've used those keywords in all the appropriate places on the home page: title: Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Service in Anytown USA header: Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Service in Anytown USA first sentence of body: We are a professional Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Service in Anytown USA meta description: We are a professional Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Service in Anytown USA. At Business Name your furry friends become a part of our family. So, my question is: Do I also optimize the "about us" page? I've changed the title of all the pages to follow this format: Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Anytown USA - Home Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Anytown USA - About Us Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Anytown USA - Rates Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Anytown USA - FAQ Dog Walking and Pet Sitting in Anytown USA - Etc Easy enough so far. Also pretty easy for the meta description, and the body. However, how would I add keywords to the header without making it look ridiculous? We use wordpress with the genesis framework, and child themes from studiopress. The header is always prominently visible at the top of the page. Most people would expect to see the header be the same as the link they clicked on the nav bar: for example, on the "about us" page, people expect the header to be: "about us" Not: "dog walking and pet sitting in Anytown USA - About Us" Do I just not worry about the headers on the other pages? For that matter, I'd really like people to "land" on the home page, not any of the other pages, so should I not optimize them at all? Does optimizing the rest of the pages help the home page to show up higher in the SERPS? If I do end up optimizing the rest of the pages, should I use slightly different spellings of the keywords: like Dog walker instead of dog walking? Or pet sitter instead of pet sitting? I've repeatedly seen people talk about not using the same keywords on more than one page... but for most of these businesses there are really fairly few keywords. There just isn't that many different ways that someone is going to search for an electrician, or a plumber, or a pet sitter. By the second or third page that I optimize on one site, I imagine I'll start running out of different variations of the keywords. I recognize that a lot of what we'll do that will be most helpful to local clients has nothing to do with on page optimization (setting up google places, google+, yahoo + bing local, etc). I'd just like to make sure that I'm doing the on page stuff as perfectly as possible. Thanks for your time and responses! -Matt p.s. while I'm at it, let me ask another question about domain names as well. Right now the pet sitting client mentioned above is using: www.petcare_Anytown_.com After operating her business for the last year she realized she is much more interested in dog walking than pet sitting. We are in the processes of redesigning the site, and when finished, are considering moving it to: www.dogwalking_Anytown_.com My assumption is that as long as we use permanent redirects from the old site to the new one, we shouldn't lose much SEO value. Is this thinking correct? On a related note though: another article I read mentioned that using a brand name in the domain may actually be more useful than the keyword rich domains above. However, www._businessname._com happens to already be taken by a pet sitting business at the other end of the country. We could however use: www.businessnameAnytown.com Which one do you think would work better? The keyword/location domain, or the businessname/location domain? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Webformix0 -
"On Page" report says 2 rel canonical urls-how do I fix that?
I am reviewing my On Page scores and I'm not getting a perfect score bk of this notice: No More Than One Canonical URL Tag Moderate fix <dl> <dt>Number of Canonical tags</dt> <dd>2</dd> <dt>Explanation</dt> <dd>The canonical URL tag is meant to be employed only a single time on an individual URL (much like the title element or meta description). To ensure the search engines properly parse the canonical source, employ only a single version of this tag.</dd> <dt>Recommendation</dt> <dd>Remove all but a single canonical URL tag</dd> <dd>HOW do I fix that?</dd> <dd>I am using Platinum seo plugin which I have checked "Use canonical urls" and the page in question is</dd> <dd>http://adderalldosage.net/general-adderall-dosage/</dd> </dl>
On-Page Optimization | | ccare7230 -
How to get Google images traffic?
How to get Google images traffic? Take a look at traxnyc.com and sugest what we can improve. Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | DiamondJewelryEmpire0