I guess we all know that the keyword on your 'Anchor Text' is important for quality backlinks. But I recently found out that images containing the keyword in 'Alt Text' is just as important. I have a few sites that have affiliate programs and have a range of banners that affiliates can use to promote and earn commissions etc.. My brilliant idea that I thought of was to add the 'Alt Text' to the code for these banners. That way all of your affiliates are promoting your site and creating valuable backlinks for your site!
Good idea, however I will NEVER mess with the alt tags unless the picture is relevant to the keyword. Google knoooows and you'll get slapped after a while when people search Google Images and you have high impressions and low CTR's Also, I tend to name my header files and button images numbers so Google doesn't count them as either good or bad.
I'm curious, how can google do a comparison of an image in say jpeg format to your alt tag to tell if it is relevant or not???
> I'm curious, how can google do a comparison of an image in say jpeg format to your alt tag to tell if it is relevant or not??? I think they cannot. But you only should name your image ALT tags related to the article content. So do I and I have good results.
Ha, ha... that's complete BS! Please read the SEO courses the RIGHT way. Google do NOT knows HOW your picture is... but they will judge you by the ALT tags! If your page is about cellphones and you put viagra on the ALT image, well, yes... it will slap you right away! And you should deserve this. Ww
Google cannot "see", remember it is a computer/network/algorithm. So they cannot see. But beware, they will be able to see (have you seen terminator??). Anyway the point is the alt tag is to tell them what the image is about as they have NO IDEA what the image is about as they cannot see. So if you have an image with an obese lady and tag it as miss world, they would not know.
Google doesn't look at your pictures lol, but you are right in saying they used Alt tags. They base their image search on Alt tags and the content of the page(s) it is located on.
It's a good idea and I think it would work. But be very careful. I don't think you're allowed to mess with ALT tags. If you want to do this, read the rules, terms of agreement etc. to make sure you're not doing anything wrong.
i like the way that you're all quick to shoot Unknown3 down but, as he states, low CTR might well lead google to believe that the image you are describing is not actually legit. comparing this information to suspect keyword stuffing in your pages and bingo - an ALT tag that's been abused. google doesn't need to SEE an image to detect if it's misleading or not.
Thats exactly my flippin-$%*(ing-point If you have a site about weight loss, and you put in one of your alt tags "fire truck" and run it through googles website analysis tool, it will say youre relevant for the keyword "fire truck". Now, Whenever someone is on google images and they search for "fire truck" and it shows a picture of some fat tard, how well is your CTR going to be? hmmm? Eventually you will be slapped for the keyword "fire truck" How is this related? Well use your brain. If you have a site about weight loss and you have a picture of some fruit & put in the alt tags "weight loss picture 1", and someone searches pictures for "weight loss" .... you know what, nevermind.... go wild with alt tags
Does it matter how many keywords you put in your alt tags, as long as it's relevent? Also, does it matter if they're similar on different pictures?
Unfortunately there is no definite answer. Just go with the flow of the site/blog you are placing it on. Remember, more specified keywords will receive better ranking than those with a broad range of 1 keyword as there will be less competition.
As said above, when the clickthrough is low on google images, they will suspect something is wrong, and, believe it or not, they have a lot of people manually checking things. The alert comes up, someone looks, sees you are trying to trick them, and you get hit hard, and it may not be easy to get their trust back. You can get away with it occasionally, but I wouldn't do it a lot.