Use of IMAGE. Do the spiders see the text in the image?Please help?

[frenzy77]

Hi guys:)

Would like some info.

Well...

Do the spiders see the text in the images? If i don't place the text in the image alt="" will they not see the text?

I ask because i have a few images pretty close together and if i place the text in the alt="" the keyword would be seen too close together and thus would possibly be seen as spam.

>>Name of site is widgetxyz.com

Ex.

Top of page:

<image src="xyz" alt="www.widgetxyz.com" />
<div id="abc">
Widgetxyz.com
</div>
<image src="xyz" alt="www.widgetxyz.com" />
<image src="xyz" alt="www.widgetxyz.com" />

This would seen as spam right?

Q. Would it be best to just *not* place the keyword(*name of site*) in the image alt="" and just leave it blank?>> alt=""

I've seen others do this.

Well please advise:)

Thank you very much:)

frenzy77

[jonrichd]

First of all, spiders will not see any text in your images. The alt text is supposed to be used to let people who have graphics turned off, or who are visually impaired, know what the content of the image is. Screenreaders usually speak the contents of alt text as they read the page.

So, I would do what would make sense if you were trying to communicate the content of your page to someone with graphics turned off. If a single image is sliced into multiple pieces for convenience, you might want to identify one if the slices, and leave the rest empty.

If the image is linked to another page, indicate what will be found if the user clicks the link.

Hope this helps.

[MichaelCrawford]

On the other hand, I am easily able to see that taking the trouble to compose meaningful alt text improves the SERPs for the keywords that are found in the alt tags.

If you're too cruel to help out the blind, at least you can help yourself out by composing meaningful alt tags for your images.

If an image is really not meant to have a meaning in itself, say alt="" so browsers for blind people will skip over it.

I'm pretty sure also that well-composed alt tags will improve your referrals from image search.