any real danger in alt tag stuffing

cimmeron · #1 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 01:07 PM

I know the alt tag is pointless, but you know, sometimes people don't listen. However, I want to know if anyone has any experience or thoughts on possible penalties from doing stuffing it.

thanks!

John Scott · #2 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 02:42 PM

Alt text is being weighted these days.

http://www.v7n.com/forums/284235-post10.html

cimmeron · #3 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 03:30 PM

I remember that thread. Why couldn't I find it in a search...

thank you!

John Scott · #4 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 03:41 PM

Just remember that Colleen is overpaid.

stoner3221 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 03:48 PM

Please keep in mind that visually impaired persons who use text readers count on Alt Tags to browse websites. They are not just an SEO tool and have considerable meaning to many people.

cimmeron · #6 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 04:04 PM

Oh, I know that

From an accessibility standpoint, they are necessary, I just wanted to get some info on stuffing them - as in long rambling sentences describing their services. If there was going to be some penalty in that, I would have suggested changing it to something more concise.

Thanks!

Kalina · #7 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Just remember that Colleen is overpaid.

Who me? I make peanuts!

cimmeron · #8 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colleen

Who me? I make peanuts!

then you are SERIOUSLY underpaid.

effisk · #9 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 05:46 PM

What about the title attribute in the <img> tag ? Does anyone use it?

I sometimes use it in addition to the alt attribute.

(3 posts in two years, if that's not professionnal lurking then what is?

)

John Scott · #10 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 06:01 PM

Title attribute does nothing SEO-wise.

SaN-DeeP · #11 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 06:37 PM

Hey John,
Read across other seo forums, title attribute plays an important role for SEO today.. its just getting me confused now.

ewc21 · #12 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

Hey John,
Read across other seo forums, title attribute plays an important role for SEO today.. its just getting me confused now.

Mostly titles are placed not for accessibility purposes which is their intended use. They are placed by people who think they help in rankings. I won't buy the idea that they do help in SEO.

John Scott · #13 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

Hey John,
Read across other seo forums, title attribute plays an important role for SEO today.. its just getting me confused now.

Last time I tested it, not too long ago, Google placed no weight whatsoever on the text in the title attribute.

Test it yourself. Put a made-up word in the title attribute and get the page indexed, and see if the page shows up for the made-up word that is only in the title attribute.

cimmeron · #14 (**permalink**) 05-17-2006, 10:23 PM

I thought I read somewhere that it may be implemented at some point possibly, just not now. I don't use it myself because I haven't seen it work and it's just additional code in there that isn't needed.

Big Bill · #15 (**permalink**) 05-19-2006, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaN-DeeP

Hey John,
Read across other seo forums, title attribute plays an important role for SEO today.. its just getting me confused now.

You two are apparently talking about different titles. The title in the header is widely recognised as being very important, while the title attribute in any tag isn't at all, far as I know.

BB

John Scott · #16 (**permalink**) 05-19-2006, 01:58 PM

I think that's where the confusion is. I read most SEO forums, and never heard anybody saying the title attribute is important.

I think he means title element, AKA "page title".

ewc21 · #17 (**permalink**) 05-22-2006, 09:22 PM

Sandeep mentioned alt attribute so it should be the attribute of the img tag. We use quite a few different terms so the confusion arises.

To clear things up: Page title is the title tag <title>; title attribute is the attribute of <img> tag.

Web Gazelle · #18 (**permalink**) 05-23-2006, 08:47 AM

The alt attribute of an img tag seems to have very little effect in Google. Yahoo and MSN seem to still look at keyword density and the alt atribute could help or hurt rankings in those SEs. But with Google having such a huge market share, who cares about the other 2 SEs?

effisk · #19 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ewc21

To clear things up: Page title is the title tag <title>; title attribute is the attribute of <img> tag.

I would add that attributes and tags are two different things.

Attributes complete a tag. In

Code:

<a href="page.htm" target="_blank">link</a>

a is the tag (precisely <a></a>), and href and target are attributes. Values are givent to these attributes (depending on the attribute, it can be a number, some text, a url, etc.)

An image tag can be:

Code:

<img src="image.png" alt="alternate text" title="title of the image" />

the alt attribute and the title attributes have different uses. The alt attribute should be shown instead of the image when the image is not available (and only when the image is not available - this is the case in text-only browsers for example), while the title attribute should be shown in the litte box that appears on the image when hovered with the pointer.

Internet Explorer does not use them properly (IE uses the atl attribute for both uses). Firefox does use these attributes properly (the alt will only be visible if the image is not available).

Now, in terms of SEO, I just did a test with the title attribute of an image. JohnScott is right; the content of the title attribute is not taken into account by any search engine.

Yahoo does not take the alt into account either. Google and MSN do.

John Scott · #20 (**permalink**) 05-26-2006, 11:11 PM

Good post, Effisk.