Choosing Between Alt and Title IMG Tags?

[TheFlyingSweetPotato]

I'm in a bit of a conundrum.

My client uses BigCommerce for their E-Commerce shop. Basically you are only allowed to either have:

1) Same alt and title IMG tags.

2) Only alt IMG tags.

3) Only title IMG tags.

So far I understand that the hierarchy is alt > file name > caption > title? In this case should I get rid of the title tag and use only alt? Or if I use both should I make the tag like an alt or title tag?

It's not ideal but I need to come up with the best solution possible.

[DonnaDuncan]

I agree with DC1611 and would reiterate you shouldn't just stuff your keywords into both tags.

Google's penalized keyword stuffing for some time now and they are always emphasizing user experience. Remembering that alt tags are designed to help visitors who are visually impaired and given the space constraints of title tags, I'd err on the side of using language that succinctly and accurately describes the image.

[Matt-Williamson]

I think you may find this post interesting - http://www.searchenginejournal.com/image-alt-text-vs-image-title-whats-the-difference/

Note the following:

"Include your main keywords in both, but change them up. Keyword stuffing in alt text and title is still keyword stuffing, so keep them relevant and meaningful"

If possible I would populate both title and alt tags for images but make them different variations rather than having them as the same. I know this is a challenge and as Dirk mentioned as you may be limited go for identical but try and be as relevant as possible. Depending how your site is setup you could potentially custom code your template to populate the two elements from slightly different but relevant data on the page.

Again I think you might find this on-page SEO post by Rand interesting -

"For search engines, the image's title, filename, surrounding text, and alt attribute all matter from a ranking perspective. In particular, those doing SEO should know that when an image is linked, the alt attribute is treated similarly to anchor text in a text link."

http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

[DirkC]

We have a site which generates 90% of it's traffic via image search. On this site we use both Alt & Title tag - and they are identical (and quite similar to the name of the image). Under the current circumstances (it could indeed be considered as keyword stuffing), not sure if I still would go for identical alt/title for this site. Traffic continues to grow, and even increased after Panda update last year, so (until now) we experience no negative impact.

Normally the alt should describe the image, the title should more or less contain the same content but more focussed on call to action - see also: http://blog.raventools.com/alt-title-text-optimized-images/

In your case, as your choices are limited, I would still go for identical alt/title - but take care that you keep the content to the point & don't exaggerate with the use of keywords. If you don't want to take any risk - stick with the Alt & drop the Title.

rgds,

Dirk