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Is it as effective for Google SEO to use alt-text on text?
The title attribute can be used with A elements, but last time I looked (some time ago) Google didn't give them any weight for the page they were linking to.
Sorry, I should have said I want to use the 'title attribute' for my text links in the menu.
...last time I looked (some time ago) Google didn't give them any weight for the page they were linking to.
alt = text [CS]
For user agents that cannot display images, forms, or applets, this attribute specifies alternate text. The language of the alternate text is specified by the lang attribute.
Several non-textual elements (IMG, AREA, APPLET, and INPUT) let authors specify alternate text to serve as content when the element cannot be rendered normally. Specifying alternate text assists users without graphic display terminals, users whose browsers don't support forms, visually impaired users, those who use speech synthesizers, those who have configured their graphical user agents not to display images, etc.The alt attribute must be specified for the IMG and AREA elements. It is optional for the INPUT and APPLET elements.
While alternate text may be very helpful, it must be handled with care. Authors should observe the following guidelines:
* Do not specify irrelevant alternate text when including images intended to format a page, for instance, alt="red ball" would be inappropriate for an image that adds a red ball for decorating a heading or paragraph. In such cases, the alternate text should be the empty string (""). Authors are in any case advised to avoid using images to format pages; style sheets should be used instead.
* Do not specify meaningless alternate text (e.g., "dummy text"). Not only will this frustrate users, it will slow down user agents that must convert text to speech or braille output.Implementors should consult the section on generating alternate text for information about how to handle cases of omitted alternate text.
and
The title attribute may be set for both A and LINK to add information about the nature of a link. This information may be spoken by a user agent, rendered as a tool tip, cause a change in cursor image, etc.
As you can see, both these elements are displayed elements. The only time keywords should be in there is if they are appropriate to be displayed in that situation.
How it appears to the user always comes before how it affects your SE ranking. Stuffing keywords makes you look bad.
the title and alt attributes are not there for keyword stuffing
Stuffing keywords makes you look bad.
The site in question is for a charity. They want the menu to say things like: Home ¦ Education ¦ Publications ¦...
I am NOT suggesting adding a bunch of keywords (ok, I see how my original post could look that way). I would like for example to have a title attribute for 'Education' that said 'Education and information about cystic fibrosis' - this is to tell people and googlebot more about that link. It just looks a bit ugly (and confusing) to have whole sentences on each of the menu links. Someone who is already at the site will usually understand what that link is about. But if the site does not help google to understand its nature, it wont rank so well and people wont find it so easily.
Forget "your keywords" and just get some related text in there. Remember that most people search on all sorts of wacky stuff, and those extra words will help bring in traffic. And even if they don't, you still did the right thing by helping out your users.
My rule of thumb is that if it's not easily visible to the user, then it's of less use in scoring.
H1: Widgets
H2: Text about widgets .....
...
alt: widgets
visible for the user, ordered by visibility. Or did I misinterpret sth?
Currently, if H1, H2 and H3 have any weight beyond normal body text it's tiny. This changes fairly often though.
alt text is ignored unless it's in a link. Currently, if alt text is in a link it counts but it doesn't show in the snippet.
If we consider the title attribute, what pages use it? Probably a few pages made by people with an above-average interest in accessibility, and a lot of pages made by people with an above-average interest in Google. I haven't tested recently, but I'd be surprised if Google would give extra weight to the title attribute at the moment.
If the right audience doesn't find the site whats the point of making it? Its not an exercise in knowing I did the 'right' thing. Its the nececssity to provide a resource that people who need it will find.
If you mean that it pops up, then that is actually an incorrect browser response in the Infernal Exploiter. The alt text is supposed to be for alternative text that should be displayed only when the image fails to load, or image loading is turned off.
If you are looking for text that pops up in a tooltip, then the only correct attribute to use (and be compatible with all browsers), is the title attribute instead.
