Oct | 05 | 2007

Alt-Tags: For Spiders and the Visually Impaired

Posted by Guru as Design Features, Images, Marketing and Search Optimization, SEO Features

Lots of people underestimate the importance of Alt-Tags. Even though SEO experts time and again stress the importance of Alt-Tags many still do not bother with it at all, or if they use it, do not consistently do so. To be honest, I belong to the inconsistent group.

Alt-tags ARE very important. SEO-wise the absence of alt-tags will ensure that your images and other embedded media will NOT be indexed by spiders since they will be unable to determine the actual content of each embedded element.

Being a parent of a child with special needs though, I am very sensitive about discrimination towards people with disabilities. To my shame I have have to admit that I have always been focused on the SEO perks of Alt-Tags and neglected to give importance to what it meant for those that are visually impaired until I read about the class-action suit against Target. To be fair to Target though more than a third of websites are inaccessible to blind users. Not that it makes it right but only that I do pity Target in a way since they have to bear the brunt of the negative consequences due to the neglect of webmasters all over the world. If I were them though I would fire my web designers/SEO consultants. They should have followed W3C Guidelines!

“Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via “alt”, “longdesc”, or in element content). This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video.”

This is a reminder to ALL OF US especially here at Blog-Tutorials. Let’s make sure our beloved blog is optimized and discriminates against no one.

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Comments (6)

6 Responses

makoy
10|Oct|2007

from now on, i would use the alt-tag.
Jimmy
11|Oct|2007

Very informative and practical, Guru – thanks! I hope I remember to use the alt-tag, too!
Guru
11|Oct|2007

Hi guys. Glad you liked the tip. I do find myself having to edit my posts whenever I forget to use Alt-Tags. It’s easier here in wordpress because it automatically asks for the title. In blogger though you have to shift to HTML view.

Enjoy blogging!
Arnoud
28|Oct|2007

How does one add Alt-tags to an embedded video? I can’t seem to figure it out… mmmm anyone?
T. Meehan
07|Nov|2007

Good information, though not new to those of us in design. Regarding your comment about firing the designers and SEO consultants, I can almost guarantee you it’s not their fault. Having worked for several Fortune 500 companies, these decisions are made at a higher level than that and executives bear a lot of that responsibility.
SEO-Browser: Quick SEO Checker by Blog Tutorials
17|Dec|2007

[...] paying attention to SEO advice and using keywords in your page title, headings, etc. as well as making use of Alt-tags. Tags: Marketing and Search Optimization, SEO Features Share and Enjoy: These icons link to [...]

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