Always include the targeted keyword in the alt tag?
-
Studies show that using the targeted keyword in the alt tag helps to rank better for a keyword. But what if the keyword doesn't exactly describe the image, would you still use it in the alt tag?
For example, say you have an image of the brain, but the article is about cognitive behavioral therapy -- an accurate description would say 'human brain' but an SEO alt tag may say 'cognitive behavioral therapy'--which would you use?
-
There is some good advice here from. Scott is right that your example is not inappropriate. EGOL is steering you very well also.
When using alt text, most do not take advantage of what it can do for you. You can use around 140 characters and give a good description of the image (as if someone blind was hearing it) along with using keyword relevant text. I recently read that by having your images with good alt text get ranked in images that does have an effect on organic. Now, it wasn't Google saying it, but to a degree it makes sense it would have an effect - how much is anyone's guess.If your example is not close to what you are putting up, go with EGOL's advice and get a new image. (I suggest geo tagging it if at all possible as well).
Hope this helps.
-
I usually try to make the first image on the page highly relevant to the primary keyword and use that keyword in the alt. However, if the image was not well described by that keyword I would use something more appropriate.
It might help you with longtail and image search... but I doubt it will hurt much for the primary query... why not get a second image that matches the primary query?
-
Wow, that's a really good question. If there were only one image on a page (e.g. selling a product), I'm sure that labeling it as you suggest wouldn't get flagged as keyword stuffing. Certainly you want to enrich the human experience, but to be honest, I haven't noticed as much impact with the alt tag as I have with other methods. I'm interested to see how this discussion evolves.
-
I would use alt tags to accurately describe the image. Google should be able to tell that an image of a human brain is closely related to cognitive behavioral therapy and will help add to the content and quality of the page. It might even look spammy to have "keyword stuffed" alt tags.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
MOZ is showing that I have non- indexed blog tag posts are they supposed to be nonindexed. My articles are indexed just not the blog tags that take you to other similar articles do I need to fix this or is it ok?
MOZ is showing that my blog post tags are not indexed my question is should they be indexed? my articles are indexed just not the tags that take you to posts that are similar. Do I need to fix this or not? Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tyler58910 -
Topical keywords for product pages and blogs
Hi all, I have a question regarding keywords. Of course we all know that keyword research should be focused on a certain topic and on user intent (and thus on answering specific questions) instead of trying to put keywords in a page to make it rank. However, duplicate content is of course still an issue. So here's my question: A client that sells floor heating systems that you can install yourself, has a product page for this topic and blog pages for questions regarding this topic. So following pages are on the website: Product page about the floor heating systems the client sells Blog article with tips how to install a floor heating system yourself Blog article about how to choose the right floor heating system These pages all answer different questions and are written about different topics. However, inevatibly all these pages also talk about different aspects of floor heating systems so this broad term comes up on all pages naturally. You could say that a solution is to merge pages and redirect the blogs to the product page, so the product page would answer all questions. But that is not what a customer is looking for. The goal of a product page is to trigger a conversion: let a customer contact the company or ask for a price offer. If the content on a product page is not comprehensive enough, the goal gets lost. Moreover, it doesn't make sense to talk about tips and tricks on a product page. So how do you tackle this problem without creating duplicate content? In search results, the blog pages rank for the specific questions, but the product page doesn't rank for the generic term 'floor heating'. The internal link structure is ok: the product page has obviously more incoming links than the blogs. All on page SEO factors are taken care of as well. Any ideas on this? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mat_C0 -
Keyword not provided now in search console
Hello, Is the not provided now available in google search console ? It seems that it is or is it a totally different thing in the search console ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Should I use **tags or h1/h2 tags for article titles on my homepage**
I recently had an seo consultant recommend using tags instead of h1/h2 tags for article titles on the homepage of my news website and category landing pages. I've only seen this done a handful of times on news/editorial websites. For example: http://www.muscleandfitness.com/ Can anyone weigh in on this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | blankslatedumbo0 -
Alt image tags , shoud i reupload my site images as i never optimized right first time?
Hi guys i own a photographic website. www.hemeravisuals.co.uk And when I created it , i wasn't aware of the world of SEO , alt tags and labelling your images etc...
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hemeravisuals
Would it be wise to reupload my sites images (100 in total) as I cannot rename the files on my wordpress site but it does allow me to add alt text , captions etc?Or just add the data i can to the images allready on the site? Would it be worthwhile in terms of search and pagerank?0 -
Keyword stuffing
Hi all. I'm working on this page - http://www.alwayshobbies.com/dolls-houses - for the term 'dolls houses'. It's not doing great at the minute (23rd in GUK) and I was wondering if it might be down to the volume of exact match keywords on the page (32). If not, does anyone have any other pointers? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Blink-SEO0 -
Meta tags - are they case sensitive?
I just ran the wordtracker tool and noticed something interesting. The tool didn't pick up our meta description. It's strange as our meta descriptions appear in organic search results and Moz never reported missing meta descriptions.After reviewing other pages, I noticed our meta description tag is written as the following: name="Description" content=" I never thought about this, but are meta tags case sensitive? Should it be written as: name="description" content=" Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bio-RadAbs0 -
Should I use the main keyword in the title tag for the site on all category pages?
I am pretty excited about changing all my title tags (for the most important 7 pages) since I have seen my rankings jump up in the SERP just by adding the main keyword for my website in the title tag. To make it easier I will explain my business. Simply, I run an online jewelry shop, so basically the keywords I want to use is "Jewelry online" and for the main categories "Necklace", "Rings" and "Bracelets". What I am unsure about is whether to use all the keywords in the main pages title tag or should I just use the main keyword "Jewelry online". I don’t want to create competition between my own pages of course. Jewelry Online - Trendy Fashion Jewelry | Homepage Or Jewelry Online - Necklace, Rings, Bracelets | Homepage And the same goes for the main categories, should I include "jewelry online" or not, like: Bracelets - Fashion Jewelry Online | Homepage Or Bracelets - Trendy_ Bangles_ and Arm Cuffs | Homepage Any suggestions what is the best practice for the title tag on main page and the main categories? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ikomorin0