Different Image Alt tags for the same image across site

[FuseSEO]

Hi All

This is a question I've been meaning to ask for a while and forgive me if it has been discussed here before.

If the same image appears across multiple pages on a website, should the alt tag always be the same or should it vary according to the subject of the page.

I suspect that Google would expect to find the same alt tag everywhere the image appears as the alt tag is supposed to describe the image. But for SEO purposes would it be beneficial to change the alt tag from just "widget" to "blue widget" or "red widget" if the image is on the blue widget/red widget page (assume it is a black and white image!)

Anyway, I'm interested to hear other opinions and more importantly, has anybody heard of a site incurring a Google penalty for mis-describing images in this way?

thanks
F

[Ace]

In my view you should keep the Same Alt Tag for that Image and Alt tags are used to describe the image if in case your image not loaded then users can see what is that image all about.

[morestar]

I'm of the same view. if i was a search engine and saw an image with the same name but with different title and alt attributes I would wonder if they are trying to spam or deceive their users.

[seopo]

ooh good question.

I'd tend to side with consistency, but were only human so there's bound to be some variation right?

If you don't take it as an opportunity to stuff different sets of keywords each time but do have a degree of variation, common sense will prevail and it will work out ok I'm sure.

Be warned that it's pretty easy for google to pick out that its the same image even if you use different file names though so heed some caution.

[morestar]

...yes for instance, apparently google can now read images to some degree, so if you were to use the same image with alternating alt/title attributes you could still get pegged.

the best thing to do would use a different image if you want to use page related keywords for each image's alt/title attributes...

[dburdon]

Fuse,
Keep it simple. Why the same image when the content changes? Why change the alt tag if you don't need to? If its a header image pick the keywords that work best across the site.

[slimwoman]

I keep the same name for my product images.

[mjtaylor]

Yes, simply, the alt tag should be the same. However, depending on the complexity of the image and the content of the page, it could be different from one to another page. The litmus test is: what makes sense for the user? If the answer to your question instructs the decision, you will be doing the right thing.

[astro]

I must admit I am wondering why the same image requires different alternative atributes in the first place? Are we talking a repeated image as a standard piece of page furniture here? Then an attempt to spam search bots/spiders with keywords to assist with page listing?

If so don't do it!

Astro

[deepsand]

The alt attribute (it's not a tag) is intended to be used for accessibility purposes.

Thus, a visually impaired user, using a screen reader such as Orca, will hear the alt text.

Therefore, just as sighted viewer will see the same image on different pages, and recognize it as such, so too should the impaired user be provided with a spoken description such that he too will understand it to be identical to another.