Image "ALT" tags for SEO?
 

I'm totally ignorant on this part of SEO. Is there any advantage to using the "ALT" tags for images with regard to SEO?

If so, let's say (just for example) I had a site about gourmet coffee making. On the front page I have several gifs of coffee cups, beans and a expresso machine. Would using a description in the "ALT" tag enhance the keywords? Is that the point of using them?

Can anybody give me a brief overview of the subject?

THX in advance:thumbsup


Michael

yea, alt tags matter.....use them

Yes, and it wouldn't hurt to use TITLE tags as well.

For those lazy webmasters who import galleries into TGPs with no descriptions, your just wasting your time. :)

Add alt tag and get g image traffic!

the more description you use....for just about anything....the better

so long as you're not ridiculously repeating the same keywords over & over

for all the search engines alt tag describes an image. usage of alt tags increases (google) image traffic, so as search engine traffic in general. it's very useful for people that has limited bandwidth usage (like mobile users with images turned off), because they can have an idea what's on the picture.

Yup, I found this out the hard way a few years ago... I was copying and pasting and my alt tags were all pretty well the same and it didn't work well for me AT all. lol

What I do is describe the pic in a couple of words, usually 3-5 words and make sure they aren't too much the same and it seems to do well. I am also using them on my text links as well.... :thumbsup

What I was gonna say has been said :)

I wouldn't use more than 5 words per alt tag though, not sure if It matters, just something Iv'e heard.

readability.


Learn it.

good thing to know.

I started out using them when I learned html and I never stopped. I find they do bring in a bit of traffic and the google images thing looks to love them..for good or bad. I try to go for short phrases with them these days.

it seems to help google in figuring out relevancy of a page as well, every little bit helps within reason

yes it would help, alt tags are how search engines figure out what your image is about as they can't read an image.
WG

Exactly, and you can't validate on w3c without em

yep they definitely help

They are good for google img traffic but if you can it will better to write description under image.