Image
& Spiders
Images in themselves cannot be read by spiders / robots. Images can however be used to assist in the optimization procedure if the <alt> and <title> attributes are used correctly.
Optimizing Images
The <alt> attribute has the fundamental purpose of briefly describing the image, so that if the image is not present for any reason, it can be replaced by the <alt> text (you may have now figured out that alt is an abbreviation for "alternate"). In most browsers however you can view both the image and the <alt> attribute simultaneously by having your mouse pointer over the image, in this scenario; the <alt> attribute serves as an assisting description. This tag is used by some search engines, while others do not use this tag unless the image is a link.
The <title> attribute serves a similar purpose as the <alt> attribute except that it is now more universal than the <alt> attribute. The Mozilla & Opera browsers do not show the <alt> attribute, they do however show the <title> attribute, therefore, for cross browser compatibility it is advised to use both the <alt> and <title> attributes simultaneously.
We recommend using both attributes with similar content, but not identical. If possible, use keywords that describe both the image and the page content. Do not use these attributes to "stuff" keywords as spam can be easily detected and your page may be banned from search engines. Because the <title> attribute is most universal, we recommend using the <title> attribute first.
Here is a code example of an image with both the <alt> and <title> attributes:
<img src="image.jpg" title="Image of Niagara Falls in summer - Click to Enlarge" alt="Niagara Falls in summer">
Images in themselves cannot be read by spiders / robots. Images can however be used to assist in the optimization procedure if the <alt> and <title> attributes are used correctly.
Optimizing Images
The <alt> attribute has the fundamental purpose of briefly describing the image, so that if the image is not present for any reason, it can be replaced by the <alt> text (you may have now figured out that alt is an abbreviation for "alternate"). In most browsers however you can view both the image and the <alt> attribute simultaneously by having your mouse pointer over the image, in this scenario; the <alt> attribute serves as an assisting description. This tag is used by some search engines, while others do not use this tag unless the image is a link.
The <title> attribute serves a similar purpose as the <alt> attribute except that it is now more universal than the <alt> attribute. The Mozilla & Opera browsers do not show the <alt> attribute, they do however show the <title> attribute, therefore, for cross browser compatibility it is advised to use both the <alt> and <title> attributes simultaneously.
We recommend using both attributes with similar content, but not identical. If possible, use keywords that describe both the image and the page content. Do not use these attributes to "stuff" keywords as spam can be easily detected and your page may be banned from search engines. Because the <title> attribute is most universal, we recommend using the <title> attribute first.
Here is a code example of an image with both the <alt> and <title> attributes:
<img src="image.jpg" title="Image of Niagara Falls in summer - Click to Enlarge" alt="Niagara Falls in summer">
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