Writing alt tags that matter

We all know about alt country, alt rock and now even alt classical, but what about alt tags?

A little background: The alt tag (or alt attribute -- the proper name) describes web site images to someone not able to view them. Such as blind people or dumb search engines.

Alt tags are found in the html code that controls display of graphics. The tags were designed as an aid for people with text-only browsers or those with crappy dial-up connections who turned off the slow-loading graphics. Ah, the bad old days. The alt attribute/tag works for folks with mobile devices or cheap handheld thingies.

The alt-whatever also serves people with disabilities. The computer's audio text application reads them the image description. Say (in a weird electronic voice), "Bill Clinton swears on a Bible photo." Upstanding netizens do a public service by writing thoughtful descriptions. Those who don't flirt with severe karma.

The alt tag's constant companion is the title attribute, which is automatically assigned the file name. Usually the alt area gets this info automatically as well. On Blogger, however, the space is blank. Upload the photo and dig into the html string that results. Look for this: alt="". The micro space between the quote marks is yours. Four-six words please.

Readers usually see the title information by letting their cursor hoover over the image (then the little colored text box pops up). Some browsers also display the alt tag info.

If your photo jpg file is named "mug 29-81," no one benefits. Meanie.

So the savvy and righteous path looks something like this:

• Give images destined for the Internet a descriptive file name such as "Shecky Greene photo.jpg"


• Change the alt tag to a something like a photo caption: "Shecky Greene eats birthday cake photo"

Earlier this week I did:

title='American Gangster Denzel Washington'

alt='American Gangster star Denzel Washington confronts foe'

It takes discipline to consistently write descriptive alt lines, especially when the post has other time-consuming elements. Wish I could say I was 100%.

Perhaps this side effect helps us both:

Good alt tags aid search engines in their examination of your page. The engines have moved away from the once-mighty meta tags and now focus on contextual elements such as the page's headlines, text -- and clues such as what's in the image descriptions. Hmm.

Related post: Avoid the search-engine suicide of important text trapped in images.