What is the ALT Attribute?
The ALT attribute or ALT tag is an HTML attribute for a text that describes an image. The ALT attribute is placed directly on the image tag. If an image cannot be displayed for some reason, the ALT attribute provides alternate text to display instead.
What is the ALT Attribute for?
Search engines use this attribute to identify image content, since image files generally cannot be read by search engine crawlers. It is also useful to provide alternative text for users and specifically for visually impaired users who have websites read by reading programs.
What is the ALT Attribute like?
The ALT attribute looks like this:
The ALT attributes appear on the screen instead of images and graphics that cannot be displayed. With the conventional use of a web portal, the attributes are not visible. You can only see Alt attributes when access the source code from a website or with the appropriate tools. If the attribute is properly integrated, it describes the image content accurately and in few words. If it consists of graphics with text, that specific text should also be embedded in the ALT attribute. All other images must have an appropriate description that is useful to Internet users and indicates the content of the image to search engines.
For the user, this has the advantage that if an image cannot be displayed, a specific description of the image is available instead. This is also equivalent from a search engine perspective. Googlebot still can't read the image files. Requires additional information to identify the content of the image. ALT attributes are also useful under the heading of web accessibilityas they allow visually impaired Internet users to have the text of the ALT attribute read to them by a reader. In this way, the images will be "visible" to people with poor eyesight.
Reasons why images are not displayed correctly
There may be various reasons why images are not displayed.
- Due to an old browser- Certain types of browsers cannot interpret certain image files.
- Tracking protection: Some browsers, such as Internet Explorer, offer special tracking protection; when activated, some images are not displayed correctly.
- Image display is disabled: Browsers like Mozilla Firefox offer users the option of not displaying image files.
- Default link to image file: If the browser cannot display an image, it may be due to a bad URL from the image source. These errors can occur, for example, if the image index on the server has been moved or renamed.
Internet Explorer 7 demonstrated the ALT attribute as a tool tip. In this way, it was often erroneously used in other browsers as a helper tool. However, that function belongs to the title tag, assuming you intend to use valid HTML.
Importance for SEO
For SEO, the ALT tag plays an important role for both the user and the search engine as content for Googlebot. If the ALT attribute is displayed without browser support, the usability of the web portal will not be affected. By means of the alternative text, the user can see what should be rendered. For search engines, ALT-tags provide important indications on the content of the image and especially the context of a web portal.
ALT tag optimization
Generally, it is recommended to use the main keyword of a web portal for the ALT attribute, to drive the focus of the keywords. At the same time, the text must be an accurate description of the content of the image. However, the ALT attribute should not be used to fill in keywords, as Google and other search engines have classified it as spam. The use of keywords in the ALT-tag is used to improve image search positioning. The optimization of the ALT attributes is thus an important part of the SEO image and contributes to the sustainable optimization of web pages.
Example
The operator of an informative blog about cats integrates the image of a fundamentally special cat. The site URL is: mycatwebsite.com/cats-with-big-ears.
The image is integrated like this in the blog:
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The purpose of the keyword can be reinforced by the content of the URL. In the realm of image SEO, file data should not be underestimated. This also plays a role in loading time and thus in the performance of the web portal.
At the same time, the ALT attribute can be used to position the best viable image search and get more visitors to your web portal.
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