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Why do I need ALT text on images? Does it benefit SEO rankings?



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Why do I need ALT text on images? Does it benefit SEO rankings?

What is the main benefit of having the ALT code placed into the image code?

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idealmike
Here's something that may shock you. ALT tags (Correct name alternative attributes of an image tag) are only really meant for blind people! They shouldn't and wasn't meant to have any effect on a websites SEO but was rather meant to help blind people see what an image is about as the ALT text was spoken out to them. So if you had an an image on your page of an apple cart with some apples in it you would create the alt text of "A cart of freshly picked red apples" which would be spoken out to the blind person using a screen reader so they would know what the image was of. But people have used them for SEO because it's an extra place to put SEO friendly keywords to.

Here's a myth I'll bust open for you about ALT tags "Every image on your site needs an ALT tag". That is simply not true! You may be using spacer images, horizontal rules or other design images on your site in some way, imagine if you was a blind person using a screen reader and you had to sit through all these extra boring ALT tag descriptions like "Bottom middle horizontal page rule" or "Corner element 004" etc etc. Those kinds of images on your site don't need and shouldn't have ALT tags on them for that reason alone. This also includes people who can see but images aren't loading them for some reason too such as if the image is missing from it's location or didn't download properly then the ALT text will show in it's location.

Is your Site Visually Impaired Friendly?

Do any blind people visit your site? You might be surprised! Although you might think of the Internet as something you can see in your browser, more and more blind people are using the Internet today for research, shopping and for communicating. Just as you need to make your site friendly to search engines and to people who can see, you also need to make it friendly to people with disabilities. It's no joke! For big business sites this could mean a lot of lost revenue if your site isn't using correct alt images where it should and shouldn't be.

Title tags however a little different, and both the ALT and TITLE tag work different in different browsers. TITLE tag should only be used when the image has a link to it. So that way the ALT tag explains what's in the image and the TITLE tag explains about where it goes to.

By the way, something else to consider and majorly overlooked, the file name has more value and importance to it than the ALT or TITLE tag does in an image in HTML. Something like 4K-Space-Wallpaper-.JPG will far outweigh any SEO value the ALT tag has. ;)



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exjordanary
That's ALL actually true for YouTube Videos just as well.Right down to the file name PRIOR to uploading your Video, as it helps YouTube Index your Video faster.

Of course, instead of "Alt Tags", they're called "Captions" for Videos (aka: "cc")
Which came from the phrase
"'I was once blind but now I can 'cc' MyTubeTV" *LOL*

Kidding. "Closed Captioning"

Now, although YouTube is getting much better at their voice recognition, I always recommend uploading your own transcriptions manually.
In addition you can now Translate your transcriptions into all languages (or invite Contributors to translate them for you) including the video Descriptions Titles.
This will improve your videos rankings tremendously from the get-go!

Not only will captions (and alt tags) help with indexing and rankings for blind people, but will also expand your viewer base globally into all languages, since text can be easily translated and recognized by search engines and YouTube (which are basically like blind people when it comes to text).

Lastly, you could force captions to show on embedded videos in any Language using "cc_load_policy".
Just add "cc_load_policy" as one of your Video's #Tags, then, add in the embed string -(normal): https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y9dP7B5mTJc?rel=0&autoplay=1
FRENCH: (using language code: frWhy do I need ALT text on images? Does it benefit SEO rankings? https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y9dP7B5mTJc?cc_load_policy=1&hl=fr&cc_lang_pref=fr&autoplay=1

CZECH: (using language code "cs"):
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y9dP7B5mTJc?cc_load_policy=1&hl=cs&cc_lang_pref=cs&autoplay=1

( if for some reason those embed codes don't work, or if you're on a mobile device try this: https://www.youtube.com/v/Y9dP7B5mTJc?cc_load_policy=1&hl=cs&cc_lang_pref=en



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TommyCarey
The main reason to have an alt tag, or alt attribute, on your images is so when someone gets to your website and the image does not load properly, it will show your tag. Having your at tag optimized with a keyword is another thing that helps you out in the long run in terms of SEO and your rankings. Have you ever gone to a website and seen a line of text where an image was suppose to be? That's the alt text/attribute/tag doing it's work ;)



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aditya
Actually Google & other search engine's BOT are not smart enough to read contents(If there is any) from images so it is necessary to put alt tag with images in webpages.



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Lynne
I heard that adding alt tags to images was vital for SEO so I always do it. I never really knew there was a reason for it other than ranking.



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ajlancer
Hi Everett thanks for nice question about image alt tag. Attributing ALT text or tag in image very importance for optimization on search engine. Google does not know what is your image about except ALT text or tag? Google only able to know your image name, title and ALT tag, when searching your webpage. This tag is also useful for helping a vision impaired person to understand what's being shown in the image. So, I think image ALT text will help for SEO result. Because, if you do not use image ALT tag or text, Google never able to know what you were using. So, image should have Tag, title, and description for getting SEO result.

Regards by Ajlancer



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vinaya
You should do SEO not only for your site and site contents (text), but also on the images you use. Image optimization for search engine includes:
having the keyword as the name, description as well as caption
using 72 dpi images to reduce the size
Keeping image dimension to less than 1000 px.
Using alt tags.



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