You may have heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words. That’s true to your audience, although not to Google, Bing and other search engines.
One thousand words is a lofty goal for any page with content, let alone one picture. Yet, adding a few descriptive words on the back end could be worth its weight in (internet) gold.
What are we talking about? Alt and Title Tags
Simply stated, “alt” and “title” tags are short bits of text that you can add to your image when you are writing a blog post or new web page content that help Google, Bing and other search engines know what that image or picture is about.
Doesn’t my content already drive people to my site?
Search engines are amazing in their capabilities, although they still can’t see an image or photo on your website. Yes, they know there is an image, although search engines analyze text and code — they can’t see images on your website and determine what those images represent. Alt and Title Tags provide an ability to add descriptive text and keywords to your images and page title. Search engines read these tags to determine if your images and titles match the content in relevant enough ways to move up on Search Engine Results Pages (SERP).
How?
Virtually every content management system or blog platform will allow you to add alt-image and title tags. While the process is simple in theory, it’s not a one-off quick fix. Adding tags should come after optimizing your content. Also of note, you shouldn’t just throw any language into your tag fields. They need to describe what they represent. If you merely add any keyword to your image, you do a great disservice to the value of your image and the page it’s attached to. The same goes for title tags, often the first impression people have of any page.
Adding Alt Tags and Title Tags to the back end of your website and blogs are one of the most basic, yet ignored, SEO steps. A proven way to drive more traffic to your website by including descriptive, keyword-relevant attributes for all the images on your website is to call Valorous Circle.
