How Important are Alt Images in SEO?

YoCrunch

YoCrunch

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May 25, 2010
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As the title says, How much weight is given to alt images by the big G ? On some of my articles/posts the image I put looks a little annoying, and the post would probably be best without the image, but I'm not sure how much the images are helping in the SERP.

Any help/insight on Alt images is appreciated
 


Not much to say. Not really a big deal. Make sure the alt text is relevant to the content. Image file name also counts.

But SEO is dead, anyway...
 
Alright, thanks for the insigh. I'll keep using alt images since every little bit does seem to help, but I wont stress over needing an image in every article.

Also Bullet-Ride what do you mean by SEO being dead? Doesn't seem too dead
 
YoCrunch said:
Any help/insight on Alt images is appreciated
Click to expand...

Firstly, a good insight would be to understand that there is no such thing as an Alt Image. The closest thing, and accurate name for it, would be an image's Alternate Text parameter inside the image tag.

Now, having defined what it is you are actually wanting to discuss, it's good to look at what the Alternate Text parameter actually does; providing a written description of what the image is about.

Now, having said that, if for no other reason than to just provide a semantic meaning to an image, you should still include a description for an image. However, as Ryan pointed out, Alternate Text does help your images show up in Google's image search. This is because Google is wanting to show semantically related images to someone's search query. Thus, bringing you more traffic.

As far as SEO, it's partly covered by Google Image Search traffic. Though, it does help in optimizing your pages. Google's page quality score takes into account Alternate text, as do just about every other page validating software. This is done by looking at the text description of the image and seeing where it fits with the surrounding content.

So, if you had an image of a hot sexy babe in a block of text discussing hot sexy babes on the beach then chances are that image's ALT parameter is going to help boost your page's quality score, thus moving you on up in the rankings.
 
Rexibit said:
Firstly, a good insight would be to understand that there is no such thing as an Alt Image. The closest thing, and accurate name for it, would be an image's Alternate Text parameter inside the image tag.

Now, having defined what it is you are actually wanting to discuss, it's good to look at what the Alternate Text parameter actually does; providing a written description of what the image is about.

Now, having said that, if for no other reason than to just provide a semantic meaning to an image, you should still include a description for an image. However, as Ryan pointed out, Alternate Text does help your images show up in Google's image search. This is because Google is wanting to show semantically related images to someone's search query. Thus, bringing you more traffic.

As far as SEO, it's partly covered by Google Image Search traffic. Though, it does help in optimizing your pages. Google's page quality score takes into account Alternate text, as do just about every other page validating software. This is done by looking at the text description of the image and seeing where it fits with the surrounding content.

So, if you had an image of a hot sexy babe in a block of text discussing hot sexy babes on the beach then chances are that image's ALT parameter is going to help boost your page's quality score, thus moving you on up in the rankings.
Click to expand...

Smart-ass you know what I meant :p

But thanks for the clarification :bowdown:
 
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