SEO CheckList

This SEO factor will probably not propel you to the top of the SERPs in your niche, but it has the potential to bring in additional traffic which, I’m sure, you won’t refuse. Since you’re bound to optimize your site for the search engines in the first place, why not ensure you do everything you can to help rake in the traffic, right? I think this is an SEO factor most easily overlooked and many web masters think little of its potential. I believe, however, that you should do everything to induce traffic and not overlook even the tiniest detail.

If you have no idea what alt and title attributes are, here is an example of the html coding:

<img src=”picname.jpg” alt=”Sun Set” title=”Sun Setting in the West”>

Alt and title attributes are commonly interchanged and most don’t bother correcting their coding mistakes. The title attribute should be used for random information on an image. It could also be used as a tool-tip (the text appearing while your mouse hovers over a picture) if your browser allows it. If your code is missing the title attribute but contains the alt attribute, then it would be used for a tool tip. However, the main use of the alt attribute is to serve as an alternate (hence the term “alt”) for the image if it is unavailable. If the image doesn’t load or if the user disables images, the text in the alt attribute replaces the image.

For image-rich web sites, these attributes are highly important. Spiders don’t index text written on images so these attributes would serve as the keywords for your content. If, for example, you’re using an image as a link, the alt attribute serves the purposes of an anchor text. Which means it contributes to the number of links and backlinks using specific keywords. Most of all, let’s not forget that people do image searches. You would want to tap into that image-searching demography because traffic is always good.