Hello again,
It's sad. :( We're down to the last two lessons in your "7 Deadly SEO Mistakes" course. In this chapter, we want to warn you about how we can be swayed by SEO "tricks" and "hacks".
With this one example, we hope to show why you should always be aware of the consequences of any shortcut you might be tempted to take with SEO.
You can read this part of the course online, or feel free to read Part 6 right here in your email if you like.
MISTAKE 6: Relying on ALT Text as part of Your SEO Game Plan
You've read the articles. Seen the "test results" on how "unique text" in the ALT text of a graphic was indexed ... thus "Use ALT Text for SEO as it is just like Anchor Text."
Um ... not so fast.
In a recent Going Natural Video from Dan Thies, Dan teaches the "art of testing" and in it he says just because something gets indexed, doesn't necessarily mean it's a part of Google's ranking algorithm. Let's face it. When it comes to SEO, you want to do what is most important to get highly ranked.
Over the last three years a trend has developed which shows using ALT text for SEO purposes has diminished. SEO set aside, what about the American Disabilities Act (ADA)? Did you know they have strict guidelines as to what your site needs to contain in order to be ADA compliant? I guarantee you; they do not look favorably at ALT text that has been keyword stuffed.
Have you ever witnessed a visually impaired individual using the Web? Using a device which reads aloud the contents of a Web page, the impaired individual will be inundated with what I refer to as, "ALT Text Spam."
Sometimes the reader is stuck on one graphic for more than 40 seconds reading all of the keywords that have been stuffed. That isn't a good experience for them.
Every search engineer I have spoken to, from Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft all agree, what you should do is create an ALT [text] that is relevant to the picture, so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is downgraded in the algorithm. The reason?
"We see ALT text as being about as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag," said one Google engineer. That should say it all, as Google has never used the Keyword Meta Tag due to the high spam rate.
Use ALT text in the manner in which it was designed to be used by the W3C: to describe the image. If appropriate, a keyword phrase can be used, but under no circumstances should you stuff the ALT tag with keywords. Keep it to a simple Description.
For example, let's say you sell skin care products and have images of items throughout your site. A relevant and simple ALT tag would read: "Image of anti-aging eye cream, or sunspot fading cream image."
SPAM Tip: Although ALT text may or may not be counted for relevancy; search engines may utilize it when evaluating sites for possible "spamdexing."
Remember the purpose of ALT text is to describe the image for the benefit of those who surf the Web with images turned off, and for those who have the contents of Web pages read out loud to them.
There are people who use the web who have impaired vision, and there is nothing worse than having 200 meaningless keyword phrases jammed into the ALT text read aloud to you by your OCR. Don't ruin someone's day. The WC3 highly recommends Web site owners use ALT text to describe images appropriately, and I second that recommendation.
So know you know that for the webmaster who cares about SEO, temptation is everywhere. But if you take the wrong shortcut without knowing what you're doing, you can damage your reputation without even knowing it!
Next time, we come to the FINAL lesson in the course. It's impossible for us to teach you EVERYTHING we know about SEO in just 7 little lessons.
But we're going to end the course with a bang all the same and give you 10 (TEN!) Dangerous Myths you'd better DISbelieve if you're ever going to Stomp the Search Engines.
Until next time,
Keep Stomping!
~Andy Jenkins and the
StomperNet Faculty and Staff
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