For best SEO and indeed best coding practice would it better to leave an alt attribute blank like this: alt=" " OR simply remove the attribute rather than have it blank. Thanks.
Neither. You should put an alt tag in. The search engines can't read pictures, so alt tags are your chance to tell the search engines what the content is about.
Use the alt tag for SEO title is great to allow additional information to your user when they mouse over a link or image. You can use title in <a href as will as <img src= alt is great for search engines that crawl your site I do this <img src="images/social-submission-linksprocket.gif" title="Why dont you add your site?" alt="Social Submission" /> Additonal SEO can be gained but not overusing or overpacking the name of the image with some keywords. Dont over use it. Hope this helps
Neither. You should put an alt tag in. The search engines can't read pictures, so alt tags are your chance to tell the search engines what the content is about. But in the newest google updatin, thus the algo is designed with this updation to optimize website of an image...
I agree with everyone thus far. I'd also point out that the alt tag should describe the picture and should not be utilized as a way to stuff keywords into the source code.
Ok cool, some are answers a bit "noobish", but it's cool, I suppose I wasn't that clear on my question. I actually work at high level in SEO and have done for years, I am fully aware of what the "alt" attribute is for, it's just the client's developers for the site I'm currently optimising have left the alt attribute blank on all the images that they don't want, or that is no point in optimising for SEO (small bullet points, navigation lines etc.) blank. Across the net there seems to be conflicting views on many forums and some people have said that it's best to REMOVE a blank alt attribute rather than leave it in with nothing in. In terms of SEO for the site there is no point in spiders reading "bullet point", although for the visually impaired or an image "no load" for which the alt attribute was originally for this is ok. I use the alt attribute on anchor links too, although good tip to point out swapshop.
Definitely use the ALT tag it also makes your site more accessible to the visually impaired who use screen readers to navigate a site.
If you are talking about alt tags for images that are strictly for layout/design purposes like background images and bullets then leave the alt tag blank. Google does a good job of following W3C standards. So, in situations like this where you are unsure (and will never get a definitive answer) you should default to what the W3C suggest...
This is on on page optimization and its not much effecting in SEO , but good site and SEo should not ignore it and have some value on SE
brilliant BILZ, thanks for the answer. Doh! silly me should have checked the World Wide Web Consortium - Web Standards. Good port of call for all bot and spider compliance in turn perfect code will = good SEO!
Alt tags are there to describe the picture to a person who cannot see it, for some reason. If you stuff it with keywords it can annoy however I have seen sites on the front page of google for a long period with and incredibly stuffed alt tag that does not relate to the picture itself?! Best to be on the safe side and just describe the relevance or describe the picture in line with the keywords/phrases/text on the page, dave
It may not make or break your SEO Strategy, but's good for navigation and W3C validation. I would recommend it.
hey! Alt tag is very important when putting image to your website because most search engine read the image in alt tag. I heard from a friend that flash can now be read just like an image file.