Various SEO Myths about ALT Tags

We often see some Alt tags in the website code. These are very useful for SEO. However, if we see around us very few people are aware about the exact use of these tags and how they play an important role in SEO field.

Presently, we thought of removing some so called Myths about these tags and clear every small perception about them so that these can be easily understood and utilized in the same manner. See, when you know something deeply and use it then you understand that thing properly but if the same thing you don’t know and still you use, then every time while using them you may wonder what’s this? Why this is used? And all such hover around our mind.

This is the thing, we love to do things about which we are completely aware and ignore those things that are not familiar with us. Same is with ALT tags, everyone knows these are used with Image tags but does anyone know their specific purpose?

Some Myths about ALT Tags

• These are known as “ALT Tags”:
  The proper name or we can say full name of this tag is “Alternative Attributes of Image Tags”. This tag is used as a modifier that renders detailed information about the image that is used in the <img /> tag. This benefits visually impaired customers and search engine crawlers while navigating the site.
   
  For Example:
  <img src="http://www.softqubes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/vehicle-tracking-system.png"
title="GSM GPS Based Tracking System" alt="GSM GPS Based Tracking System">
   
  
   
  This is the image that will display with this code where the Alt Attribute is GSM GPS Based Tracking System. This describes that the image is about GPS Based tracking system.“ALT Attribute” is just an element of this tag. But, it is not actually a Tag it is just the supporting element of a tag known as Image Tag. It’s like calling any vehicle you see as a car.Was this really a myth? Till today, you were unaware of this. But now you got the truth that “ALT is actually an ATTRIBUTE and not a TAG”.
• Myth 2 – ALT Attributes can be used in place of text:
  Text content can’t be replaced with any other attribute. It is the unique way to display the content useful to the customers. Any page with just images and no text will hardly get any good rankings on search engines. A relevantly optimized ALT Attribute is not strong enough to provide proper SEO Signal.
• Myth 3 : ALT Attribute is mostly used for SEO:
  In order to make website access easy for visually impaired customers, ALT attributes have become the sole elements of SEO. This is a very wrong mindset as these attributes could be optimized in such a way that they fulfill their real purpose of improving accessibility.Always write small, short ALT attributes so that they help blind handicapped people to access your website easily. This will also help you to optimize your SEO. The information about an image that will help customer understand it properly is your ALT Attribute.

The Take Away

Hope, we were able to clear some of the myths related to ALT attribute where the most important is: ALT is an Attribute and not a TAG. We will clear more of these myths in our upcoming blogs. Till then, stay in touch with Softqube Technologies, Guaranteed SEO Services Provider in India.