SEO - keywords - image and alt tags

Author: Lee Rixon

Last time we talked about the always visible elements on the page, specifically headings and visible text. If you have done a good job, you have 'threaded' your key phrase into the headings, title and content and still have excellent copy. It is important to get high rankings on the search engines, but that won't count if your page copy is gibberish because its stuffed with your key phrase.

Next we will look at the 'sometimes visible' elements on the page. Specifically these are the 'alt' tags on each image, and the text descriptions associated with hyperlinks. I call these 'sometimes visible' as they only appear after the cursor has been resting over the element for a little while.

The 'alt' tag on an image is an alternate description that is loaded if the browser has its image loading turned off. This used to be important when people surfed the web using slow modems, but these days, hardly anyone has their image loading turned off. This gives us an excellent opportunity to put content into the page that can be loaded with our key phrase.

Again, be aware that the 'alt' tag description will show if the cursor is left over that image for any length of time, so you still have to write good copy, but as its an image description, there is a little more latitude than with visible copy.

The same is true for hyperlinks. There is an optional elemt called 'title' that again only shows when the cursor moves over the hyperlink, and is really designed to give the user a bit more information about the hyperlink.

Great! - another place for us to put our key phrase. Again, its worth repeating that this text is still visible, so don't go overboard, but some creative writing should allow you to do some threading.

More later.....

About the author: Lee is one of the principals at Spinnaker Systems which provides Web related services to the small business owner. Lee can be contacted at lee@spinnakersystems.com and is a regular contributor to the Spinnaker Blog