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Bobn
15-09-2003, 08:30/08:30AM
Just a quick posser for ya'll

Alt tagging is good for images so that you can get another line of useful content relivant to the page/image content, for example if a page was about the merits of a particular product then an image can be tagged with keyword complient text and descriptive details about said product...

I have also notice that you can tag links images and even flash (if you enclose it in another tag like a DIV or a SPAN) but can a spider/bot read this properly...I,ve shoved an example through a spider simulator but I,ve got very little evidance to back up whether or not the sim tool is any good...

http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi

Can I have your opinions on this...

Cheers
:cheers:

Bob
ihelpyou
15-09-2003, 09:00/09:00AM
Hi Bob, You did not write that correctly.

The reason for an alt tag is to describe the image and/or the page it's linked to. It's for those out there with images turned off and not for just the search engines or to get 'more content' on the page. The se's give very little weight to it anyhoo, so you should not worry about whether or not an se sees an alt in a flash file. I doubt it, but it's not important as even if they did, it will certainly not get you in the top ten.

With that said, if you can have an alt tag that describes the image or the page it's linking to and also include an important keyphrase in it, that is great. I just would not stress over it though. :)
Bobn
15-09-2003, 09:04/09:04AM
Thanks Doug,

I'm really not an SEO kind of guy (codegeek) but Its a big old world out there..in SEOLAND but thanx for the advise...

Bob
ihelpyou
15-09-2003, 09:07/09:07AM
Yep, you are very right! All you can do is read in here as much as you can and ask questions. :)
g1smd
15-09-2003, 16:08/04:08PM
There is no such thing as an alt tag.

There is the alt attribute which can be used with the img tag though.

There is both a title attribute and a title tag.

The title tag is used in the <head> section of an HTML document.

<title>The Page Title</title>


The title and alt attributes are used as follows:

Valid: <a href="/path/page.html" title="popup text here">the link or anchor text</a>

Valid: <img src="/path/filename.png" alt="alternative text" height="50" width="50" border="0">

Valid: <a href="/path/page.html" title="popup text here"> <img src="/path/filename.png" alt="alternative text" height="50" width="50" border="0"> </a>
grungee
22-07-2006, 02:04/02:04AM
Showing my ignorance here, but the alt attribute is used purely on images and the title attribute is used on header text/links
is that correct?
Dave Hawley
22-07-2006, 02:10/02:10AM
Not sure what you mean by "header text/links" but the Title attribute is for links only and should be used to describe the page the links points to in a short, clear and very concise manner.

I doubt any weight is given to these by SEs though.
grungee
22-07-2006, 02:55/02:55AM
Dave it was mentioned in another post that for WAI compliance you use the Title attribute for <h1> tags but of course I could have read that wrong as well.:cheers:
Dave Hawley
22-07-2006, 03:09/03:09AM
Oh, not sure on that. Deb would probably know.
Connie
22-07-2006, 03:21/03:21AM
I think the confusion here is the title in the head of a document.
<head>
<title>page title</title>
</head>

I always put that in a <h1> tag at the top of the page. <h1> page title</h1>

Using header tags will alert someone using a screen reader that what is in the header tag is important as I understand it.

The title attribute goes with a link so your would have <a href="page" title="opens a new window">anchor text</a>

The title attribute is a tool tip that on mouseover provides the user with a little more information about the link they are going to click on.

IE will display up to 1000 or so characters in the title attribute. Most browsers will only display 75 or so characters so you don't want to make the title to long.

It can be beneficial for your users. I have done some reading in regard to screen readers, and my understanding is they will read the anchor text of a link so I'm not sure the title attribute would be of any more value to some one using a screen reader than the tool tip on mouseover.

I'm sure Deb will see this and straighten everything out. :D
g1smd
22-07-2006, 19:25/07:25PM
The <h1> tags are headings, not headers.
SEFL
24-07-2006, 01:30/01:30AM
Part of this is fact, and part of this is my interpretation. I'll try to separate as best I can.

Fact

The ALT (or ALTernative) attribute of an img tag is meant to provide ALTernative text for someone or something that has sight issues (or as Doug pointed out, has images turned off) to be able to know what is supposed to be there. For example, a picture of a dog may have an ALT attribute of "Dog", or "Golden Retriever", or, "Snarling pitbull chewing on the leg of its owner".

The TITLE attribute is an extension of the ALT attribute, in that it could be used for tag to provide information on what's supposed to be inside of it.

For example:

<abbr title="Search Engine Friendly Layouts">SEFL</abbr>

<a href="http://www.somesite.com" title="This is an external link to somesite.com, an information portal about all sorts of...stuff.">Some Site</a>.

[b]Interpretation

The SE effect in terms of on-the-page factors influencing the rankings, like pretty well all on-the-page factors, is minimal. A bot might be able to guess at what's there, but why would it want to? If it can't read the contents, there really isn't anything for it to sink its teeth into anyway and this leads to some serious potential for abuse.

e.g.

<div title="Look at me I'm gonna use this tag to stuff keywords to the point where everyone wants to puke. Doug, are you ready to puke yet? Come on, Deb, I can see the puke rising up in your throat. Connie? Oh, I KNOW you're gonna puke. Pukey McPukerson from Pukeville off the Pukecific Coast, how about you?">(Flash animation here)</div>

If you're going to use these attributes, you might as well use them for useful stuff.
SEFL
24-07-2006, 01:31/01:31AM
By the way, Doug, you need some word wrapping on the [code] tags, dude.
Dave Hawley
24-07-2006, 05:40/05:40AM
All the facts seem to be here (http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/global.html#adef-title)
g1smd
24-07-2006, 20:07/08:07PM
Well, so they do.

Dang!
Dave Hawley
24-07-2006, 22:58/10:58PM
Er, not for super g1smd, but for us mere mortals reading the Thread :rolleyes: