Images alt tags Seo and you
A picture is worth a thousand words unless...
its on a website, at least to search engine crawlers and search engine robots that is.
Search engine robots and crawlers can not read the text in an image. So for all intents and search result purposes images are useless. There is however a way to fix this search engine related problem. It is called an image alt tag (img alt) , this simple tag can save your website. Many websites do not use image alt tags, even fewer website use image alt tags (img alt) properly. Most website designers and many website developers are not thinking about SEO or search engine optimization when the make a website. The main concern of web designers is that websites look pretty an every image lines up right. The main concern fro web developers is that a website works right and that images don't interfere with their coding. Some website designers will use image alt tags (img alt) to describe an image others to name it to help with remembering image placement.
A good example of this would be a background image, most have names like bg.image, back.image or background.image. This is fine for its intended purpose but does nothing for your users or search engines. In fact it can actually hurt you website search engine rankings. Just imagine for a moment your beautiful new website made by the top web design and development team. They have laid out you website just like the picture you gave them and it looks wonderful. So what hides beneath? well lets say the reference the images about 100 time and use alt tags to help them remember where they go. So you now have the word image_refencepoint 100 or more times in the part of your webpage that search engines are reading to understand this pretty picture. Guess what just happened? You made it to the top of Google but not for "Modern Art", which is what we will pretend your website is about, but for image_back image_head and image_place. Yay you are now the worlds first search engine pick for something that will never help you sell modern art.
So what can you do to fix this ? Well if you are using a company to do you website development and design work you can tell them up front you want all images named for what they are or a word from your chosen subject. This way Mona Lisa is Mona Lisa, instead of image_right1 or something equally pointless. You can also tell them to use relevant keywords and descriptions for EVERY image in the image alt tags (img alt). If they say this is to hard or extra work which will cost more money. You might even let them know how much you know by saying, in your best computer geek speak, "images by default in all modern html formats are not valid without image alt tags (img alt). Are you telling me your company charges extra for valid work on websites. I don't understand why I should pay for non standard code." This should keep your website in best form for search engine results and users alike. It should also give you an edge right out of the gate.
What can you do about your image alt tags (img alt) if you already have a website ? Well you have two options if your website is already running for fixing your images. First you can hire a professional SEO company to do it for you. This can be very expensive if you don't do your homework. Many SEO companies do not use search engine safe practices. Most seo companies severely overcharge for seo services. Seo experts are not a common breed and therefore can get away with charging more for their seo work than they should. If you research seo companies before you dive in. You should find an affordable seo expert using proper seo practices. If you do not you will may get a seo expert who uses blackhat seo techniques that will have you banned from search engines. Not to mention paying to much for your websites seo optimization.
Now for the best news of all. You can fix your websites images and img alt tags all by yourself. Don't worry, search engine image optimization is not that hard. There are several ways you can do it. The best way wil be by hand or at least using a decent HTML editor to add the image alt tags yourself. The next best way would be to use software that can optimize your website images for you. Both of these optimization methods can be done 100% free. Amazing right. The best editor on the market is called Dreamweaver
by Macromedia which is now part of the Adobe 
company. You can get a no cost version that is fully functional. The best software to do it automatically is called the SeoRuleBook which is by the Seo Rule Book company.
Doing your own seo image optimization with an HTML editor will give you total control of what image alt tags say in your website. This will also take the most time. If you have researched your website and know what your target audience is it will be a simple task. In fact with just a little bit of website HTML knowledge and Dreamweaver it should take only a couple of hours to optimize all the images for your entire website. Now if your website is very large or you are not comfortable with optimizing it your self then the SeoRuleBook, which also has a no cost version, will be your best bet.
SeoRuleBook will give you many side benifits also. You can check your website titles meta tags and every seo aspect of your website all on your own computer. So with a few minutes work you are fully optimized. Dreamweaver will also give the benefit of letting you have a very advanced website editing tool. Either way you can do your own search engine optimization of website images and even your website pages easy without having to pay for it.
By MD Feinx
Web 2.0 Seo
tag: seo, image seo, alt tags, web 2.0 seo
google docs
A picture is worth a thousand words unless...
its on a website, at least to search engine crawlers and search engine robots that is.
Search engine robots and crawlers can not read the text in an image. So for all intents and search result purposes images are useless. There is however a way to fix this search engine related problem. It is called an image alt tag (img alt) , this simple tag can save your website. Many websites do not use image alt tags, even fewer website use image alt tags (img alt) properly. Most website designers and many website developers are not thinking about SEO or search engine optimization when the make a website. The main concern of web designers is that websites look pretty an every image lines up right. The main concern fro web developers is that a website works right and that images don't interfere with their coding. Some website designers will use image alt tags (img alt) to describe an image others to name it to help with remembering image placement.
A good example of this would be a background image, most have names like bg.image, back.image or background.image. This is fine for its intended purpose but does nothing for your users or search engines. In fact it can actually hurt you website search engine rankings. Just imagine for a moment your beautiful new website made by the top web design and development team. They have laid out you website just like the picture you gave them and it looks wonderful. So what hides beneath? well lets say the reference the images about 100 time and use alt tags to help them remember where they go. So you now have the word image_refencepoint 100 or more times in the part of your webpage that search engines are reading to understand this pretty picture. Guess what just happened? You made it to the top of Google but not for "Modern Art", which is what we will pretend your website is about, but for image_back image_head and image_place. Yay you are now the worlds first search engine pick for something that will never help you sell modern art.
So what can you do to fix this ? Well if you are using a company to do you website development and design work you can tell them up front you want all images named for what they are or a word from your chosen subject. This way Mona Lisa is Mona Lisa, instead of image_right1 or something equally pointless. You can also tell them to use relevant keywords and descriptions for EVERY image in the image alt tags (img alt). If they say this is to hard or extra work which will cost more money. You might even let them know how much you know by saying, in your best computer geek speak, "images by default in all modern html formats are not valid without image alt tags (img alt). Are you telling me your company charges extra for valid work on websites. I don't understand why I should pay for non standard code." This should keep your website in best form for search engine results and users alike. It should also give you an edge right out of the gate.
What can you do about your image alt tags (img alt) if you already have a website ? Well you have two options if your website is already running for fixing your images. First you can hire a professional SEO company to do it for you. This can be very expensive if you don't do your homework. Many SEO companies do not use search engine safe practices. Most seo companies severely overcharge for seo services. Seo experts are not a common breed and therefore can get away with charging more for their seo work than they should. If you research seo companies before you dive in. You should find an affordable seo expert using proper seo practices. If you do not you will may get a seo expert who uses blackhat seo techniques that will have you banned from search engines. Not to mention paying to much for your websites seo optimization.
Now for the best news of all. You can fix your websites images and img alt tags all by yourself. Don't worry, search engine image optimization is not that hard. There are several ways you can do it. The best way wil be by hand or at least using a decent HTML editor to add the image alt tags yourself. The next best way would be to use software that can optimize your website images for you. Both of these optimization methods can be done 100% free. Amazing right. The best editor on the market is called Dreamweaver
Doing your own seo image optimization with an HTML editor will give you total control of what image alt tags say in your website. This will also take the most time. If you have researched your website and know what your target audience is it will be a simple task. In fact with just a little bit of website HTML knowledge and Dreamweaver
SeoRuleBook will give you many side benifits also. You can check your website titles meta tags and every seo aspect of your website all on your own computer. So with a few minutes work you are fully optimized. Dreamweaver
By MD Feinx
Web 2.0 Seo
tag: seo, image seo, alt tags, web 2.0 seo
