alt tag: search engines?

[pete2007]

Hi,

 

I don't have much text content on my homepage and would like to know if it would be a good idea if I added a (alt tag) to several of my images?

 

Would the search engine crawlers be able to pick this up?

 

Any help or advice would be most appreciated!

[tapuahk]

Hi,

 

I don't have much text content on my homepage and would like to know if it would be a good idea if I added a (alt tag) to several of my images?

 

Would the search engine crawlers be able to pick this up?

 

Any help or advice would be most appreciated!

 

Yes, alt tags to images and title tags to link are indexed by google and yahoo. BEWARE do not spam these 'Each alt tag should be unique' 100 alt tags saying the same thing HURT your page rank.

 

At MOST use the same alt tag TWICE.

 

NOTE: alt="my picture" is the same as alt="MY PICTURE"

 

~~~Tapuahk

[pete2007]

title tags to link

 

Thanks for the prompt response.

 

Is it possible to add tags to text links?

[tapuahk]

Title Tags for <a href> 's should repeat the text between the <a href> and the </a>

 

Image alt tags should describe the image or purpose of image.

 

A picture of a compact disk could have an alt tag like:

alt="Compact Disks at StoreName.com"

 

if your are trying to get better ranking for the store name.

 

you get the idea?

 

~~~Tapuahk

 

PS. I use the MOD Header Tag Controller it adds a lot of SEO for your shop.

[tapuahk]

Thanks for the prompt response.

 

Is it possible to add tags to text links?

 

Yes, the title tag is use for that purpose

 

ie. <a href="/" title="Homepage for your site">Homepage for your site</a>

 

~~~Tapuahk

[tapuahk]

Thanks for the prompt response.

 

Is it possible to add tags to text links?

 

Look at my site "www.emonstore.com" When you put your mouse over the Shop image link you will see the title tag text.

 

Also you can add store content to a regular html page see "www.emonstore.com/texts/"

 

~~~Tapuahk

[pete2007]

Thanks again for your very helpful advice!

[Jack_mcs]

Thanks for the prompt response.

 

Is it possible to add tags to text links?

No, alt tags are for images only. Use the title tag for text links. However, you can, and should, use the title tag on images, along with the alt tag.

 

Jack

[pete2007]

I've found my logos text in header.php, can I add the alt tag, like this...

 

From this:

 

<?php echo tep_image('images/myheader.jpg')?>

 

To this:

 

<?php echo tep_image('images/myheader.jpg')? alt="MyWebsite.co.uk - Text">

[tapuahk]

NO the function looks like this

 

function tep_image($src, $alt = '', $width = '', $height = '', $parameters = '')

 

so the call would look more like

 

NEVER MIND ME I MADE BIG ERROR

 

tep_image($src, $alt )

 

as in your example

 

<?php echo tep_image('images/myheader.jpg','this is your title text')?

[tapuahk]

Here is how the tep_image works

 

// The HTML image wrapper function
// variables are passed into it
 function tep_image($src, $alt = '', $width = '', $height = '', $parameters = '') {
   if ( (empty($src) || ($src == DIR_WS_IMAGES)) && (IMAGE_REQUIRED == 'false') ) {
     return false;
   }
// alt is added to the img tag even if it is null to prevent browsers from outputting
// the image filename as default
   $image = '<img src="' . tep_output_string($src) . '" border="0" alt="' . tep_output_string($alt) . '"';


// if you entered text it gets output as title="text you put in"
   if (tep_not_null($alt)) {
     $image .= ' title=" ' . tep_output_string($alt) . ' "';
   }

// will automatically set image to full size if it set in admin
   if ( (CONFIG_CALCULATE_IMAGE_SIZE == 'true') && (empty($width) || empty($height)) ) {
     if ($image_size = @getimagesize($src)) {
       if (empty($width) && tep_not_null($height)) {
         $ratio = $height / $image_size[1];
         $width = intval($image_size[0] * $ratio);
// if not it uses numbers you give it
       } elseif (tep_not_null($width) && empty($height)) {
         $ratio = $width / $image_size[0];
         $height = intval($image_size[1] * $ratio);
       } elseif (empty($width) && empty($height)) {
         $width = $image_size[0];
         $height = $image_size[1];
       }
     } elseif (IMAGE_REQUIRED == 'false') {
       return false;
     }
   }
// here height and width are output
   if (tep_not_null($width) && tep_not_null($height)) {
     $image .= ' width="' . tep_output_string($width) . '" height="' . tep_output_string($height) . '"';
   }

   if (tep_not_null($parameters)) $image .= ' ' . $parameters;

   $image .= '>';

   return $image;
 }

[tapuahk]

The programmers of OSC thought it best that ALT= and TITLE= should both be the same string so the

 

tep_image function only passes an $alt variable which is used for both tags

 

The title tag is used by blind people and should be written as it would be spoken, like "Welcome to our store" NOT "Store Welcome Page", so this forces you to use same rule for ALT=

 

This is something google added to their secret recipe for page rank. Well written language, who would have guessed.!

 

So don't throw random keywords in there, use them in a complete sentence.

 

Do You Understand?? That is SEO.

 

 

~~~Tapuahk

 

 

Yes. I edit a lot, darn voice recognition needs a grammar checker.

[indigoclothing]

If following web standards you should always use alt tag for images.

[Guest]

What we have done is for say Coffee Blend on the product page the image has the alt and title tag Coffee Blend. In the What's New box if that product shows up it would have Coffee Blend is one of our new coffees. If it is in the reviews box it would have Read reviews of Coffee Blend.

 

And for the text links the title tag should give more information and not just repeat the words there so say for Coffee Blend the title tag would be Fresh roasted Coffee Blend.

[morrisqueto]

Here is a tool that rates your SEO optimization. I use it all the time to know if my density of keywors, title, description, alt are correctly used.

 

It has helped me to rank some of my sites at the page 1.

 

http://whois.domaintools.com/