How strong are Alt attributes

[Webnauts]

Some hours ago I was playing around with Google's search, and searched with the term I have in my logo alt attribute: cutting edge in seo

Here is the search results page: cutting edge in seo - Google Search

Any thoughts?

[idansh]

ther are good for higher density of your keywords but not the most important ones

[mjtaylor]

It's nice to see your site on the top for any search query!

I do believe alt tags are read and indexed by Google and given some weight in ranking. I don't particularly think they are more or less powerful for a more or less searched term. With a more highly searched term, there is more competition, so the effectiveness of any SEO element would be less obvious.

I do note that 'cutting edge' only appears once in your text, and that you do use the term in a title tag for the image as well. I often use title tags in links, but not in image tags ...

Did you have a particular focus for your that I missed?

And I have a question: I know why we have alt tags for images - originally in case someone turned off graphics, and these days for accessibility for sight impaired surfers ... but what about title tags in images ... what are they for? I don't mean to hijack your thread, here, John ... just

Curious, MJ

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

It's nice to see your site on the top for any search query!

I am expecting more than that when my domain/site will be one year old. (October 2007)

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I do note that 'cutting edge' only appears once in your text, and that you do use the term in a title tag for the image as well. I often use title tags in links, but not in image tags ...
Did you have a particular focus for your that I missed?

And I have a question: I know why we have alt tags for images - originally in case someone turned off graphics, and these days for accessibility for sight impaired surfers ... but what about title tags in images ... what are they for?

The title attribute in links or images has no weight for rankings. I use the title attribute in the images, while Firefox does not show the alt tags.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

I don't mean to hijack your thread, here, John ... just

Hey, no problem MJ.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

I am expecting more than that when my domain/site will be one year old. (October 2007)

So, you believe in the *G* sandbox?

Well, your site is #34 for seo consulting ... that's not too shabby ... and #29 for search engine optimization consultant ... #21 for search engine optimization consulting ...

Originally Posted by Webnauts

The title attribute in links or images has no weight for rankings.

Well, I have heard otherwise for the title attribute in links ... (SEOmoz | Beginner's Guide to SEO) - says they are ... and I have used them for SEO reasons, and it seemed to have an effect, but I didn't test like this: Title Attribute Control Test) ... Unfortunately that thread doesn't seem to indicate an answer. I have emailed to see if they got any sort of definitive (ha!) answer.

MJ

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

So, you believe in the *G* sandbox?

Well depends on what you understand with the term Google sandbox.
I see that as Google has several criterias for ranking, for example the age of the domain and or site. You cannot manipulate that. But when the minimum required time elapsed, the you go to the next ranking level. Google is crawling our sites, he caches the pages which have not be modified (if you are using HTTP 200 and 304, with Etag turned off), evaluates the page changes with the up-to-date algorithms and gives you a rank. If you are penalized, you will go behind position 28 if you are penalized with -30, or whatever other penalty.

That is all I would like to add here about this topic.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Well, your site is #34 for seo consulting ... that's not too shabby ... and #29 for search engine optimization consultant ... #21 for search engine optimization consulting ...

Our forums are doing very well too. Even if we are still tweaking the site and its forums.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Well, I have heard otherwise for the title attribute in links ... (SEOmoz | Beginner's Guide to SEO) - says they are ... and I have used them for SEO reasons, and it seemed to have an effect, but I didn't test like this: Title Attribute Control Test) ... Unfortunately that thread doesn't seem to indicate an answer. I have emailed to see if they got any sort of definitive (ha!) answer.

MJ

If title attributes have a certain weight for ranking or not, is not what the whole thing is about. I set up on the 23rd of April 2007 an experimental page to check diverse attributes and tags. You can use it to figure out if the title attribute has weight for rankings, or if it gets indexed at all.

I use them anyway, and I usually add in the links the title attribute, using the title of the page I am linking too. I feel as a semantics advocate and professional, that it makes sense for the bots, as they get the context of the linked page before they arrive there. Therefore you are more search engine friendly.

Just my thoughts and my last two cents.

[Webnauts]

As I mentioned above, I feel as a semantics advocate and professional, that it makes sense for the bots, as they get the context of the linked page before they arrive there.

But more important for me is, that my site visitors can hover over the links, and see where they are heading too before clicking. That is to my experience, excellent semantics, accessibility, usability and navigation.

Optimizing for Search Engines, with Humans in Mind.

[incrediblehelp]

This explains things a little more clearer:

"cutting edge in seo" - Google Search

4 total results. A website like SEO Workers should be number 1 in this case with just an ALT tag.

[Webnauts]

Jaan these were the kindest words I ever heard since I have this web site.

Thanks a lot buddy. Very much appreciated. At last my efforts are recognized.

[Webnauts]

Doing a search with Google without the (") cutting edge in seo, I damn rule buddy with an alt attribute (and not an alt tag):
cutting edge in seo - Google Search #1 here out of 1,080,000

[incrediblehelp]

Yeah I was just pointing out that long tail keywords like these will take little effort to rank on with a website like yours, considering the popularity and competition of the keyword.

[Webnauts]

Again, thanks a lot Jaan for the kind words. Very motivating for me and my team, to continue our research and tweaks, to make our site even more friendly for humans and machines.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by Webnauts

I use them anyway, and I usually add in the links the title attribute, using the title of the page I am linking too. I feel as a semantics advocate and professional, that it makes sense for the bots, as they get the context of the linked page before they arrive there. Therefore you are more search engine friendly.

Thanks for your willingness to digress on other matters ...

And this is *very* interesting, and similar to what I believe. The more information, and the more consistent information, the better for SEO (and for visitors, of course). I was recently asked, are site maps good for SEO? Well, not in the sense of algorithmic weight, no, but making sure a robot can easily access your page is good SEO, yes.

Now, have we addressed what *you* were trying to get at with this thread?

MJ

[Webnauts]

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Thanks for your willingness to digress on other matters ...

You are always welcome Mj.

Originally Posted by mjtaylor

Now, have we addressed what *you* were trying to get at with this thread?

I guess so. Or?

[kauzy]

ALT attributes help ranking in Google and sometimes in Yahoo. Im not sure whether it helps for MSN/Live