D_Blackwell - 8:36 pm on Jul 29, 2008 (gmt 0)

Unfortunately, it does work.....putting carefully targeted content into ALT tags can make a very positive difference to the SERPs.

I would not consider this form of SEO to be 'unfortunate'. It is (IMO) an essential image SEO tool. File names and alt descriptions both help with ranking for image searches. I have taken to branding all images above thumbnail size so that when they show up in the search engines they are less likely to be stolen, and more likely to bring me some extra traffic or to license/sell images. I have also taken to downgrading the file names and alt/title for thumbs and concentrating on giving the most value to the larger image presentations.

presentational images should not be in the page markup at all, they should be included as background images via CSS whenever possible.

I probably use less 'presentational' images than most but fully agree to avoid using <img> and placing as background-image: It's usually not that difficult once the habit is developed. This eliminates the accessibility conflict entirely in many cases and is 'best practice'. It wouldn't even occur to most designers but should be highlighted bullet point in 'the handbook':))

I have a high interest in in this forum, though my skills remain limited. The biggest problem is that everything has to be learned and done on my time and for my own interests. Very few clients will pay a nickel extra for the benefit of these skills or knowledge. Mostly I work on my own sites now, but I have the same ROI issues - there isn't any. I work on improving these skills where and when I can for my own reasons.