ALT tags on 0 px spacer gifs

[needlz]

The HTML validator marks all the spacer images without alt tags as errors. Do I need to stuff keywords in all the spacer's alt tags or can I just ignore it and leave them empty.

thanks.

[flood6]

I keyword stuff, but you can also just put alt="" (just an empty pair of quotes).

[Dave Hawley]

I wouldn't stuff keywords into Alt tags of blank spacer gifs. Google *might* see this as 'spammy'. Not worth the risk IMO.

[flood6]

Originally Posted by Dave Hawley

I wouldn't stuff keywords into Alt tags of blank spacer gifs. Google *might* see this as 'spammy'. Not worth the risk IMO.

Right now it's safe to assume that Google can't "see" what a given image is, so they can't tell what is a valid image and what isn't. Though I imagine such small sizes and names like "spacer" would be a giveaway.

At most, I just have the page title dynamically placed in the alt attribute; 1 or 2 words. I wouldn't put more than a few words of alt text into any image.

But I do agree that the risk is there and there is no real proof that alt text helps anyway.

[jestep]

Also, Unless your image is a link, the alt text wont help anything except having your images spideres for google images searches. For the alt text to be used for the overall page ranking the image must be a link.

[flood6]

Originally Posted by jestep

Also, Unless your image is a link, the alt text wont help anything except having your images spideres for google images searches. For the alt text to be used for the overall page ranking the image must be a link.

That's an opinion stated as fact, and in my opinion it is inaccurate.

Alt text is (among other things) meant to describe an image that can't be seen by disabled viewers. One would be forgiven for thinking that alt text would have an effect on the page's ranking. Even if it has 0 effect in google, what about Yahoo? Or MSN?

But again, this is only opinion as well.

His initial question however was about standards compliance. So regardless of their effect on positioning, he needs them to validate his site.