more than 1 phrase in IMG ALT tag ?

Forum Moderators: phranque

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more than 1 phrase in IMG ALT tag ?

mike2010

4:00 am on Aug 11, 2014 (gmt 0)

I guess most of us feel like IMG ALT="" tags should reference 1 keyword or keyword phrase. (referring to the image in general)

But think it would hurt if I used more than 1 phrase...and/or used commas as well?

For instance if the image was of a basketball and the domain url was basketballDotCom ...would it be ok to use

IMG ALT="basketball, soccer , nba, basketball"

or would this be bordering on stuffing ?

and/or what about if it were 2 keyword phrases being used with the 1 IMG ALT tag ?

For instance : IMG ALT="play basketball online", "nba basketball hoop"

Google / Bing generally approve ya think? I'm not even sure if they'd approve of comma(s) being used in IMG ALT tags.

not2easy

4:41 am on Aug 11, 2014 (gmt 0)

Really, the purpose for img alt tags is for a short description of what the picture is. It is used in case the image cannot be viewed, one example is for blind people using a screen reader. It is not intended to use keywords unless your keyword happens to be what is in the picture.

phranque

4:56 am on Aug 11, 2014 (gmt 0)

view the page using a text-only browser (such as lynx) or turn off images if that's an option in your browser.
then you will have your answer.

lucy24

5:38 am on Aug 11, 2014 (gmt 0)

But think it would hurt if I used more than 1 phrase

Use as many words as are necessary and appropriate, no more and no less. I remember ebooks where I'd have several hundred (literally) occurrences of

<img src = "images/blahblah.png" {etcetera} alt = "clay pot">

... but then other times you need to describe exactly what's in the picture, because the text keeps referring to See Fig. 11b and the reader has to be given some clue what they're talking about.

If the image is a decorative doodad, use something that will create the same effect, like

alt = "----"