Alt Attributes
January 7th, 2009
Back again with another post about some small steps many Fortune 500s are ignoring in their web site optimization, or lack thereof. Alt attributes, often mistakenly referred to as the “alt tag”, are assigned to images, presented to the user when the image is not available, and optionally, in some browsers when you mouse over the image. Their core purpose is accessibility for browsers that don’t display, or users who cannot see images. See the image below for an example:
Alt Attribute Example
The image displays an alt attribute, but when you scroll over the image, one pops up in real time as well.
They can be one more way to show the SEs what your page is about, give it a little added weight for those terms, and on the user side, it allows the user to know what the image was if it is missing, or can act as a caption of sorts in the browsers that show the attribute when the image is moused over.
Valero, an energy corporation, has one unoptimized ALT attribute for the image on the homepage, with the images through out the site missing the ALT attribute entirely.
General Motors, one of the Big 3 recently receiving a government bailout, uses a lot of flash, which is fine, but the images there are do not have ALT attributes.
Ford Motor Company, like GM, uses a lot of flash, and not too many images, but the ones they do have are missing the ALT attribute.
Here’s an interesting one, Fannie Mae, the much ballyhooed mortgage company, now in a state of disaster, does not use the ALT attribute, or any SEO techniques for that matter.
I know it’s a small thing and can be easily overlooked. But now is the time to be making every effort on behalf of your company, and it’s web presence. It means more now than ever. These optimization steps can be vitally important, especially when combined with a clear strategy in mind. So, take a look at your Alt attributes and take a little time to use them.
