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You are here: Home / blog / Alternative Tags Should NOT Be An ALTERNATIVE

Alternative Tags Should NOT Be An ALTERNATIVE

in blog, search engine optimization on 07/08/15

Take advantage of your alternative tags for seo valueI probably lost you already huh? Alternative tags, also known as alt tags are the 2nd naming mechanism for a picture you upload on your website. The first would be the title, irony huh? The second is the alt tag.

The alt tag has some SEO value in that the search engines usually check out the title and the alt tag since the spiders can’t read images (this includes pdf files as well) so it reads the text. Remember that not everyone can see your post so when readers come into play, when the reader gets to your image, your alt text is read by the reader – just like with the search engines.

What usually happens

When folks take pictures on their camera and upload them, they are usually given a number 123.jpg. Or, if you buy a picture, it might be named with a logical description, a number or a keyword. What do you do when you upload images from your camera or buy pictures online? How are you sorting them and finding them later?

What you should do with your images

It’s really an organization thing… and just makes the most sense, to me.  What I try to do is to save the pictures with a descriptive name so I can easily find it.  Then, when I upload them, I add an alt tag.

Pinterest & alt image tags

Typically, the alt tag is the text that is included under the picture. Depending upon which plugin or extension you use, it may also divert to the SEO title or SEO description – which is clearly another reason to take advantage of the alt tag and meta tags.

Here’s a quick tip on updating all alt tags

It will take a lot of time going back into every post and updating the title and alt tag so if you go through the media library, it would be much faster. Obviously it would help to know what blog or page that picture relates to as you would want to be sure the alt tag and title are in line with the text. Here’s how to do that.

 

Just wanted to show you the alt and meta tags on your pinned post.. so you can see what I meant by that.

 

Bottom line:

Be sure to add a title and alt tag to every picture you upload to your site. Click To Tweet

If you have any questions about your alt tags or search engine optimization (SEO), please let me know as I would be happy to provide a marketing consult or share with you my SEO services.

~Kristen

32 Comments

About Kristen Day

Kristen is a small business owner and thus dedicated to other small business owners by helping them improve their online presence with having a professional and mobile responsive website, then implementing search engine optimization and pay per click advertising all of which are necessary 'evils' in the digital marketing sphere but enables small business owners the opportunity to compete with larger companies. When not in the digital arena, you can find her hanging with her girlfriends, husband, drinking a margarita or shooting competition (not in that order).

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Comments

  1. Michael Kawula says

    07/15/2015 at 8:34 AM

    Wow, interesting info! Thanks for sharing! Anything that can help with SEO Value is definitely something worth doing! Everyone wants to be more visible!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:49 AM

      Thanks Mike, you got that right… that IS why we are on the internet, right?

      Reply
  2. Roslyn Tanner Evans says

    07/15/2015 at 8:43 AM

    Thank you, thank you. I was getting confused by the caption, title & alt tag. Not anymore & I will go back to media gallery & see if I can add if missing. We also just started adding text to our Pinterest post. In fact, it has helped determine which graphic to create versus a piece of jewelry. Super thanks for your video. Honestly, when others add videos that go beyond 3 minutes, my brain disappears. You ARE the best!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:50 AM

      YAY! I am glad that you liked the videos and found it helpful… I agree with you Roz… short videos for me.. otherwise, skip it!

      Reply
  3. Gisele Grenier says

    07/15/2015 at 8:57 AM

    Alt tags are critical when adding images to your site especially when being compliant to accessibility guidelines. Great post!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:50 AM

      So true Gisele, as you know. thanks!

      Reply
  4. Cathy Jennings says

    07/15/2015 at 11:46 AM

    FANTASTIC guide, Kristen! Thank you so much for the easy-to-understand steps to make my site even better and take advantage of the features of the technology.

    I really appreciate your expertise and how you share it. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:50 AM

      Thanks Cathy for the kind words, it is my goal to help others. Let me know if I could be of any assistance.

      Reply
  5. Clive Maloney says

    07/15/2015 at 4:28 PM

    Well explained Kristen. Alt tags are a mystery to a lot of people. I’ve seen two distinct approaches to Alt tags. Back in my days as an eLearning author I was taught to simply describe the picture. The picture you used would have an Alt tag something like, “Coloured key tags.” That was because Alt tags were of primary concern to sight impaired people using screen readers. Now, things seem to have shifted toward explaining the concept of the picture like you do in your video. This makes sense really considering search engines are now using it as a page ranking tool.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:51 AM

      Well Clive, you are describing the picture, by using keywords, since ultimately, the description and keywords should be explaining the page, right!?

      Reply
  6. Carol Rundle says

    07/15/2015 at 4:46 PM

    Great info as always. I especially liked the idea of naming the photo in relation to the blog it’s associated with, not just a generic name like “bathtub.”

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:52 AM

      Agreed Carol… no bath tub here. lOl Could you imagine though, if you had several posts about “bath tubs” though.. how would you differentiate?

      Reply
  7. Beth Niebuhr says

    07/15/2015 at 5:10 PM

    Whew! Something that I do correctly! I like to include keywords in the alt. if it makes sense. Good advice as always, Kristen.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:52 AM

      YAY Beth! Woot woot.. great job and thanks

      Reply
  8. Beverley Golden says

    07/15/2015 at 5:26 PM

    Curious if the alt tag should have the name of the blog post and your name on it, so it refers back to you and your site/blog. I haven’t added alt tags to any of my images (and I have a LOT) and am not even sure if I have my titles correct, as often I just put the name of the blog post as the photo title. This was a great post, Kristen, and looks like I have a lot of backtracking to get my images on track and reading correctly on social media. You could definitely help me with this! Thanks for the info and loved your videos, although I couldn’t read the alt tags you were referring to.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:53 AM

      You could do that, as long as the title is catchy, explains the post (which is should be already) and has at least one keyword in there. Didn’t figure you could read my alt tags, but thanks for that.. as I was trying to show you the “where”

      Reply
  9. Liz Benoit Cozby says

    07/15/2015 at 10:44 PM

    Can I just say “ditto” to Beverley? lol. I’m almost in hyperventilate mode, even though I do not have near as many pictures as she does, but you know as well as I do that every time I change something on my site, something else crashes! OK, breathing now. Replaying your video again. Maybe again. Maybe one more time, for good luck.
    Great post! 🙂 Every time you put something out here, I learn something without a brain meltdown, so Thank you for making it sound easy.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:54 AM

      No more crashes Liz, let’s be positive.. and this is a great time for you to check yours out and every post.. do it right from the start. You’ve got this! One more time for good luck… and glad to help w/o meltdown! lol

      Reply
  10. Cassandra McIntyre says

    07/16/2015 at 12:08 AM

    Good information Kristen. Although I do always use my alt tags, I do not always put my title in my picture. Thanks to you and Kim Garst. 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:54 AM

      Yes, I hadn’t done that either.. but I totally see the value Cassandra. Glad you do use your alt tags. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Beth says

    07/17/2015 at 8:17 AM

    Ugh…where was the information 6 months ago? Not only do I need to add alt tags but I now realize I need to go back and change all of the titles. I didn’t realize that I should be using ones that would actually help with SEO…I clearly need like a week of training with you 🙂

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:55 AM

      Well.. I am PRETTY sure I posted something similar like 6 months ago.. where were you? LMAO! I would suggest starting today and moving forward and maybe go through them a few at a time.. no need to do them all today. 😉 Happy to help you whenever you are ready Beth!

      Reply
  12. Sherri Frost says

    07/18/2015 at 3:53 PM

    Phew! It sounds like I am doing something right for a change. I (mostly) am putting a description in there for Pinterest purposes. I used to just put the title of the page or a keyword, now I try to make it chatty.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:56 AM

      YAY Sherri, great job!

      Reply
  13. ruby says

    07/18/2015 at 6:53 PM

    I love your funny title!

    Images are found in SERP. It should be one of the pieces in whatever we post online that should be optimized accordingly. It is essential for internet marketers.

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:56 AM

      That’s right Ruby, great job!

      Reply
  14. Lorii Abela says

    07/19/2015 at 3:59 AM

    A great post that is worth the effort doing it and sharing it to your readership, as always. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/19/2015 at 8:56 AM

      Thanks Lorii

      Reply
  15. Jackie Harder says

    07/21/2015 at 2:31 PM

    I do! My content management system notifies me when I upload a pic without an alt tag. The biggest issue, as you point out, is that you want a descriptor for your images so you can easily find them during a search. But on the other hand, once you put them on your site, the alt tag needs to be congruent with your content as well as your keywords. Good stuff! As always…

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      07/21/2015 at 5:04 PM

      Awesome.. Hubspot really does a great job! I notice that even when I save a file on my computer one way, it doesn’t always stay that when I upload it, so I have to do it again… crazy… but thanks Jackie!

      Reply
  16. Lori English says

    08/25/2016 at 12:08 PM

    Kristen,

    Giid pints andwatched the videpo pn pinterest and using both Seo and alternative text. It’s helpful thabk

    Reply
    • Kristen Wilson says

      08/25/2016 at 9:26 PM

      So glad you are getting the value Lori.. thanks for checking out my other blogs. 😉

      Reply

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