is "ALT Text For Image" Important?

[jani]

On my website I have not used the ALT text for images, but today when I was searching google images i realized that google will not get images from my website because the images on my site have no name.

Is it important to use ALT text? Does it help in getting some traffic from search engines?

 

[SkinnerW]

"alt" text for images is an important part of SEO process and also accessibility requirement.

If someone can not see your image for some reason how do they know what is supposed to be on that image?

SE spiders definitely can not "see" the actual image...

 

[jani]

oooo I see, That might be a big reason that I am not getting much traffic from search engines. I will just put the ALT text on all images asap.

Thanks SkinnerW... I am still waiting for your reply regarding the layout of my homepage. Is it OK now?

 

[SkinnerW]

yes Jani, your layout is not broken anymore but you should definitely consider learning at least basic CSS...

 

[Meti]

Yes, they certainly area. Search engines cannot read images, therefore setting ALT on images, may give a SE a clue of what you're hosting

- Meti

 

[mrcrowley]

If you have plenty of text in your web page its not that important. But Alt text on images is needed to validate your html. So its good practice to use it and it does attribute to the seo of your site.

 

[Bisje]

almost 30% of my google traffic found my site through the images... so yes, ALT is very important.

 

[vicdigi]

almost 30% of my google traffic found my site through the images... so yes, ALT is very important.

Brilliant results there Bisje. Do you have a photostock library website?

Jani, agree with all here. It is used flor many different reasons as stated above and depending what your site is it could even benefit it more than what you realise.

For SEO purposes it can work magic if not spammed.

 

[Bisje]

Brilliant results there Bisje. Do you have a photostock library website?

nope, just bookcovers : www.boekensite.net - Google Image Search :crazy:

 

[jani]

yes Jani, your layout is not broken anymore but you should definitely consider learning at least basic CSS...

Thanks for your feedback on the layout.

Yes, I Will definitely learn CSS and all the coding part, once I get the job.. cuz I am jobless now and have not much money to pay the fees for this web development course ATM

almost 30% of my google traffic found my site through the images... so yes, ALT is very important.

I see, Thanks for the feedback. I have now updated my website and now all of the images have ALT text. Hope it will increase the traffic to my site from search engines

 

[espmartin]

Jeni, also if you haven't, sign up for the free Google Webmaster Tools. It has an option
to use the Google "advance image search" techniques on your sites you configure in their
tools. That, and using ALTs will give you a boost in SERPs.

On an aside, ALTs are very important (and was touched on here too) for accessibility.

 

[jani]

Hey espmartin, Thanks for the link you shared, I am going to check it now.

I have updated my site and now I am excited to see the result that how many visitors i m getting after putting the alt text

 

[espmartin]

Hey espmartin, Thanks for the link you shared, I am going to check it now.

Please do sign up with Google's webmaster tools. From within the tools, you
can control your sitemap's submissions, change the crawl-rate for the Google
spider on your site, and track the real backlink numbers for your sites.

Hey, you can even tell Google which URL type you use, either www.yoursite.com,
or yoursite.com (no www)

 

[jani]

Yes Martin, I will check out the google webmasters tool.

Btw, I have changed the THEME of my website for the Happy New Year & Christmas... How is it looking now?

You can leave your comment here and on the chatbox on my site as well.

 

[espmartin]

Looks the same...Unless I lost your URL

 

[jani]

You need to refresh the page or try this link

Tip: By putting (?) question mark in the end of the URL, the browser doesn't load the page from cache, it just sends a new request to the server and brings you the fresh web page.

 

[espmartin]

Ha ha ha! I just had the wrong URL

 

[Chris30]

Good place to start is here helped me a bunch though I am still pretty green.
www(dot)cssbasics(dot) com/ you will have to put it together for some reason I cant post links.