: Space in img:s "ALT" attribute good/bad for search engines? I am trying to make it easier for search engines to crawl my website, as it is almost 100% dynamic. I have a couple of transparent
I am trying to make it easier for search engines to crawl my website, as it is almost 100% dynamic.
I have a couple of transparent images which are actually links to sections of my page.
I wonder, if I add an "alt" attribute containing space characters to explain the target, will this improve SE rankings etc?
For example:
<img src="blabla.png" alt="post new classified">
Or will this just result in errors?
Ànd, what should I put in the alt attribute if I can't use space?
PS: Another different and short question, will javascript-rich content make a page less important to crawlers?
Thanks
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The best sample you can extract for ALT attribute is here:
dev.w3.org/html5/spec-author-view/embedded-content-1.html#alt-10
Make a favor, open you webpage with Lynx, W3M, or Links. Then disable image loading on Firefox/Chrome/Opera and see your page too. You will notice how alt works and will have a better idea on how handle with.
Crawlers and Image crawlers take alt as a textual representation of images, figures, buttons, and so on. Just treat them as a piece of text embed into your context, make them useful and users will thank you - as well as search engines.
That said, let's go specifically to your question:
Check here:
dev.w3.org/html5/spec-author-view/embedded-content-1.html#alt-9
As you can see, there is no problem using alt with spaces. Just write alt as you would write the anchor text and everything should be fine.
Going further, remember you also have the title attirbute, which is not directly SEO related, but counts with keyword density and is the proper way for giving users tooltips, which is good for accessibility and usability.
About javascript, install noscript addon on Firefox and access you site, and/or use a text browser. That's the shortest way to check how your page and measures get crawled.
the alt-attribute is for screenreaders. (alt = alternative)
search engines take some keywords out of it for the image search
You should use spaces, as screen readers will not be able to understand the tag otherwise.
Most modern browsers also use these as "tool tips" when hovering over images (if a title attribute is missing) - so, even on this count you should use proper grammar.
In general alt is an alternative representation of the image, mostly in case the image can't be seen (if it is missing, text based browser, a network error when retrieving the image or any other reason).
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