keyword loading in alt-tags

[web_goddess]

i've noticed that some of my main competitors have included all (or most) of their keywords in an alt-tag in the top left hand corner of the site. is this a good idea or not? Many of them rank above me on Google....i realize it's not because of the keywords in the alt-tags...but is it helping?

thx,

web goddess

[seokat]

Google pulled the first alt tag as the description for one of my client sites instead of the actual body copy.

[brotherhood of LAN]

web goddess, its a good idea in principle to get something you want humans to read as a description on your SERPs, but it is a bit borderline in regards to the SE's method of ranking.

I "think" the general consensus is that its a bit spammy ;) only someone who knew that putting a gif there for a page description would be the same person that knows full well that this will rank them better with some choice words added!

It's all debatable though!

I assume the main reason in regards to spiders is that some engines still take the first few lines of a document as the description on a SERP

[web_goddess]

thanks a lot. this helps.

web goddess

[agerhart]

Alt tags should definitely be used within your SEO campaign. I have seen claims that certain search engines assign as much weight to Alt tag content to on page text.

There is significant weight given to Alt tags (I don't think that there is as much as on page text).

When you use Alt tags on your pages, use your own judgement, or better still, use a search engines. Try to think like them.

Is it realistic to have a 30 word Alt tag for 100 x 100 pixel image? No.

[incywincy]

once when i copied and pasted a logo from one web site to another i accidentally left in the original alt tags. i was amazed to find that google ranked this site extremely highly for the main keywords in the original site. the logo was in the top left corner of the page. perhaps google assigns more importance to attributes that exist towards the top of a document. nowadays i always ty and get an image in the top left corner and apply relevant keywords.

[buckworks]

Keep in mind that well-written, informative ALT texts make a page more usable and accessible for human users who are surfing with images turned off, or maybe using an audible browser reader. If your ALTs are written with the intent of making life easier for those folks, they add useful content to the page, which is A Good Thing. As long as you don't take it to the point of silliness, it would perfecly logical to include keywords here or there as you describe this picture or that link.

It has been my experience (YMMV) that things done in a genuine effort to make pages more accessible won't hurt you in the search engines, and will often help.

For more than you ever wanted to know on how to make your site more accessible, check the Web Accessibility Initiative at [w3.org...] .