Get the Most Out of Your Tags

We have all heard of alt and title tags when it comes to Web site coding, but how many of us are using them to our advantage? Any search engine optimization guru will tell you that they are the perfect place to put your Web site’s keywords. Others will tell you they are there to help disabled folks understand what they are. What is all the fuss about them?

Alt tags are usually used with images on the Web to describe what they are about. Title tags are just like alt tags, except they are for links, not images. Now that we have the fundamentals down, we can do more into why they are useful and why you might not be using them in the best way possible.

True, they are suppose to be there to help disabled folks understand what that is a picture of or where that link really goes. As I mentioned before though, they are a gold mine when it comes to search engine optimization. Use them as a chance to put in a few more keywords into your Web site text. This will help you out with the search engines out there, as long as you do it correctly.

I don't believe you should stuff each one with too many keywords though. Remember, that you must keep the title or the alt tags relevant to what they are describing. So how do you find the correct balance? That much is still up to personal opinion for the most part. Here is an example of how I would handle a situation though.

Say you have your Web site logo at the top of the Web page. Instead of just putting "Logo" in as the alt text for the image, try putting, "MyWebsite.com - Your Home for Stuff I Like!". This way you get a few more keywords into there that you might not get a place to mention anywhere else. To search engine spiders, text is text and they can't really tell the difference.

So look over your own Web site and decide if you could use a little sprucing up when it comes to alt and title tags. Just remember to do so responsibly.