Length of ALT tags?

[Yokozuna]

Are there limits to the number of characters or words that are used in ALT tags?

I don't want to cram War & Peace into my ALT tags, but I was wondering if there are guidlines to how long they should be, and if I should set myself limits.

I'd appreciate your opinions on this.

Cheers,

Daniel

[Hope]

Hello Daniel,

Alt tags are intended for those who choose to turn off images, browse sites with a text browser or a handicapped. They are not inteded to be used for search engine rankings. That being said, you should use your judgement on the length of your alt tags. The tags should describe the image and nothing more. A lot of people will put one or two keywords into alt tags to assist with rankings. I would not recommend putting too much into them. Remember that when someone hovers a mouse over an image, the tags will appear. If there is too much there it will look like crap. Use you own judgement on what looks professional and acceptable.

[robwatts]

Hi yokozuna

Generally speaking there isnt a limit to the number of words allowed in an alt tag.

If you are writing war and peace inside them then you are not using them properly.

Besides whats the point in having a page full of words stuffed inside alt tags?? Just makes for a fat page with spammy content.

An alt tag shouldnt be used for kw stuffing etc. It should be used as an aide to the visually impaired or for people with text only browsers to describe the image they would otherwise be viewing.
An image that says "search engine" for example would be ok with alt tag that said search engine image, although some people would perhaps drop the word image.

That said, some people do use them to place a keyphrase here or there . The benefits/disadvantages of this tactic are much
disussed and vary from engine to engine.


Id say that the general thrust of this practice is on the decline simply because people realise that its not only a bit spammy but that its also a waste of time that could be better spent fine tuning the page content or getting more inbound links.

<added>Or in other words what hope said a millisecond b4 hand :)</added>

[Yokozuna]

Thanks for the replies.

I was just making sure that I wasn't 'spamming' by including 6-10 words in an ALT tag.

We've found that using this many words not only makes it easier to describe the image, it also allows you to provide a more accurate description of the page the image links to.

In the past our focus has been aimed completely at the usability aspect, without a thought of how the search engines viewed them. We have produced a number of sites with a strong consideration on accessibility to the visually impaired users, including those using screen-readers.

From what I've read, on this forum and elsewhere, the ALT tag should not be a major consideration in terms of SEO, which is good - as we can continue to use them in the same way we have always done.

Thanks again,

Daniel