Image alt tags shouldn't contain keywords?

[AMA-DataSet]

Hi Everyone,

I've been informed recently that keyword within your image alt tags can be a trigger for penguin if you have your keyword mentioned too often on the page (over-optimisation).

I'm not sure I understand why though, the reason for this is, we have a page which features a picture and a description of a product. The page title, heading, a mention in content and image alt all contain a keyword which is the product name.

I've been told to remove these alt tags but aren't alt tags important for screen readers and other W3C complacency issues, so removing the product names from the alt (which also happens to be the keyword for the product pages but is best describing what the image is) would make these image useless to users with certain disabilities, so if its true that doing this can be a negative signal isn't this breaking googles guidelines by not providing good content for those users?

Would it be better to remove these alt tags or attempt to remove keyword elsewhere on the page? or can anyone suggest something else?

Thanks in advance.

[EGOL]

I've been informed recently that keyword within your image alt tags can be a trigger for penguin if you have your keyword mentioned too often on the page.

I don't think that keywords in your alt tag should be a problem.   The alt tag is intended to give essential information about your image to someone who is using a screen reader because they are visually impaired.  So, your alt tag should contain words that describe the image.  That might be keywords it might not be keywords.  Just be accurate.  Google is not going to slap you because of your alt tags.

if you have your keyword mentioned too often on the page.

Here is the problem.  Fix this.

[AMA-DataSet]

Thanks Andre and David,

I will look into changing the alt tags to something more descriptive and changing the optimisation of the keywords within the page.

Thanks again for your help.

[david.smith.segarra]

Have a think about how you might be able to change the keyword to something more descriptive for the alt tag.

I had this same problem. So I ensure all my images had a description and I removed any instances of over optimization for certain keywords.

In answer to your question, I would remove instances of your keywords form content (ensuring that you are not under optimizing) before the alt tags. As you rightly said alt tags are important for screen readers and other W3C complacency issues

Dave

[AndreVanKets]

IMO Alt image tags shouldn't play a part in over optimization i wouldn't think. If anything, reduce the amount of times the product name is mentioned in the content.

If i were to further improve the alt image tags however, i'd suggest including descriptive words as well as the product name:

Original: Blue Shoes

New: Shiny Blue Shoes for Boys

This way, your not laser targeting each page for a certain keyword and instead mixing it up a bit for users. It looks natural this way and your images should still rank for the keywords.

Greg