Alt vs Title for SEO

I am always confused on whether to use <alt> attribute or <title> tag when adding images to my content. I made a research on this issue and here is what I come up with at the end.

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Effects of <alt> attribute for SEO

The main purpose of using <alt> is making your content accessible. It enhance your website’s accessibility such as if some one is using a screen reader, can’t load the image for some reason, the browser will show the alternative text giving them a better user experience. The more accessible a website is the more likely it will rank in SERP’s. Using <alt> attribute for images will help search engines to understand what your images are all about and rank your images in the image search result pages such as Google image and blended search result pages. It is said that Google even use alt attributes as descriptions of images in Google Image so this is a proof <alt> attribute’s success at Google’s end.

Using <alt> tag is simple. Normally, when you add the above image in to your content, the HTML code looks like this:

This is not enough to tell SE’s what the image is about. It is a better practice to apply <alt> tag like:

Remember not to do any keyword stuffing and don’t use more than 7-10 keywords in your alt tags otherwise it may be perceived as spamming.

Effects of <title> tags for SEO

Title tags gives additional information about the links ,telling users where they will be linked if they click on the link with a description display. They are also useful in some browsers who doesn’t support <alt> attribute. Search engines doesn’t give weight on title tags in terms of ranking but we all know search engines rank user friendly websites so using <title> tags are helpful for your SEO at the end.

Using title tags is pretty much the same as alt example above, just insert title instead of alt:

I finally decided to use both of them just to make sure my content is accessible with all browsers and optimized.

What is your opinion about <alt> attribute and <title> tag? Do you think any of them makes more sense in terms on SEO?

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6 Comments

Scott Million

Posted May 13, 2009 at 2:51 pm | Permalink

Thanks for the heads up on using alt attribute and the role it plays on search engine optimization of anyone’s site.
johnn Peterson

Posted May 14, 2009 at 3:31 pm | Permalink

The main purpose of alt is what explained above clearly.. it would be better if we have keywords in alt attribute, image name.. iff possible in url also.. The better practice is to share the keyword in all places than stuffing
Dalam Hensi

Posted June 4, 2009 at 10:12 pm | Permalink

Very usefull.Great info.Thanks you!
metafever

Posted June 24, 2009 at 3:03 pm | Permalink

I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Thanks,
Joe
Ted Wood

Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:53 pm | Permalink

I want to offer some clarifications.

- All browsers support the attribute. It’s Internet Explorer that incorrect uses the alt text as a tooltip. Don’t mistake this as other browsers not supporting the attribute correctly. All tags should have an alt attribute, even if it’s empty.

- The alt text is stand-in text for the image should the image not be displayed properly. A picture of a hammer could have alt text of “hammer”.

- The title attribute provides additional information about the picture and is also correctly displayed as a tooltip in most browsers. For a picture of a hammer, you might have title text of “A reliable hammer with a compressed wooden handle”.

- If even more information is desired about the image, the longdesc attribute can be used to link to a page or content block with more information. This attribute has not been well-supported by browsers, though.
New Orleans Web Design

Posted June 22, 2010 at 10:32 pm | Permalink

This is great information. I just realized that I’ve been using alt without title, and you make a great case to use both. Thanks.

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