Comments on: Further Study on the Value of Image Optimization

By: Branson Web Design

Branson Web Design — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:49:43 +0000

Interesting.. hopefully someday Google, Bing, and Yahoo will get on the same page

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:03:42 +0000

Do you know, thats totally blown me away… just proving that less is sometimes more! There has always been a ‘fuzzy cloud’ over the subject of the use of the alt tag on images, but the fact that adding a title tag will actually have a negative ‘over-optimised’ scoring effect.

Thanks very much and I think i can safely put the subject of ‘image optimistation’ to bed!!

By: Legos on sale

Legos on sale — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:58:21 +0000

Many of us already consider optimizing images for Web use by reducing the file sizes as much as possible without noticeable visual degradation.

By: Webdesign Roosendaal

Webdesign Roosendaal — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:41:06 +0000

Thank you for this research? I’ve always told people and colleagues to never use the title-attribute when using images. That is what the ALT-attribute is for. Using both is just completely redundant.

Using the title-attribute for links however… now that is completely logical. The title attribute is meant to be used to elaborate further on the linked text.

By: Wayne Davies

Wayne Davies — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:23:16 +0000

I can’t help but wonder if your results actually reflect what’s happening in Google, Yahoo and Bing. In this test, the use of both the alt and title tags in an image tag has resulted in an apparent penalty. But is it the use of both tags, or some other factor?

For example, perhaps the lack of keyword density from other sources (e.g. the page text) has pushed the second occurence of the keyword beyond some arbitrary value and triggered the penalty.

I think it would be interesting to run the test again, but this time with the following varients…

1. Lots of keyword relevant text so the alt and title tags don’t stand out
2. The use of different keyword phrases in the alt and title tags (i.e. non-duplicates)

The result of such a test would either lend weight to the theory that both alt and title negatively impact on a site’s ranking, or refute it.

By: Llamadas Internacionales

Llamadas Internacionales — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:27:26 +0000

I will now have to delete all my TITLE tags from images, i was using both, the title and the alt elements. Thanks for the test!

By: mindwork

mindwork — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:26:00 +0000

A very interesting study and it is very good SEO optimization may help in promoting the site. Thanks a lot.

By: Beth Charette

Beth Charette — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:54:59 +0000

I have to say you are very brave to attempt to make sense out of the Google system.

People who actually work there certain don’t have a clue. With approximately 200 elements (changing constantly) that go into evaluating a web site, the two people I know who work for Google tell me it is a waste of time for them to try to gauge what elements might be stronger or weaker one week to the next. They also discount page rank as meaningful either. They say that at one time page rank might have had some general relationship to search results but that they are surprised that it is still be offered considering the changes that take place every day at the Google offices.

However, anyway, you are a better man than I am for trying. (Obviously)

Beth

By: Job master

Job master — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:42:42 +0000

Great article. Yeah i agree that image optimisation really helps your site get good SEO reputation in front of search engines.

By: Jijo@ Blogging Tips

Jijo@ Blogging Tips — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:02:07 +0000

Well Written dude..
I am going to take a Print of this article. Such a Nice detailed report which goes through every aspects of Image Optimization. I learned something extra from your article.
Thanks a lot.

By: Gerron Mulder

Gerron Mulder — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:55:49 +0000

Very interesting, though I personally think that some things could have been done better. Using links in order to get the pages / images indexed isn’t optimal. The links itself have a big influence on the final results. It probably is way more accurate to only use an XML sitemap in order to get the pages / images indexed. Keep on testing!

By: joel

joel — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:25:05 +0000

Great work.Hats off to the research you have made.Many facts were completely new to me.I always preferred alt tag and realized how useful it was now.Hope Google stays with the same algorithm.

By: Ehsanul Karim

Ehsanul Karim — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:39:09 +0000

Great findings. Just hope that google does not change the search algorithm again.

By: Bryant Smith

Bryant Smith — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:54:53 +0000

Awesome post, I actually just started using the title attribute along with the alt in some of my sites… so it’s nice to some actual results from you doing exactly that. I do believe I’ll stop this practice, it probably wasn’t worth the time to begin with; but to see that it could actually have a negative effect really makes up my mind. Thanks again!

By: HB

HB — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:50:26 +0000

Interesting demonstration with very interesting results. I’m also surprised that alt+title did so poorly. Glad you mentioned 508 compliance – do you think alt is weighed more heavily because of its usability purpose?

By: Bruno

Bruno — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:36:23 +0000

I would actually think that alt+title would be better than just the alt. I was extremelly impressed with your research. I am doing a SEO experiment myself and I find this very useful.

Bruno SEO

By: Ocala Web Design

Ocala Web Design — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:30:42 +0000

I normally try to make my alt tags descriptive to the image and page using relevant keywords. You have to keep in mind to keep your alt tags short and specific. Not all that long ago alt tag stuffing with keywords was a popular way to increase rank but that soon went way of the buffalo and doing so now can get you penalized. One short keyword phrase per image should suffice.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:53:31 +0000

Your post only proves that the Alt element differs in every search engine. Other search engines weigh it as number one while some disregard the use of this Alt element.

By: WordPress R

WordPress R — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:20:02 +0000

This is realy great post. I’m usualy building web sites that includes a lot of product images. Until now I used to use both title and alt tag.
I jnow about over optimization penalty but I didn’t think it goes also for title and alt tags.
Thanks for this info.

By: Efusjon

Efusjon — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:42:45 +0000

How do the search engines determine the relevance of the alt tags? Since alt tags are typically hidden from the average user (unless they cover) overzealous SEO folks could just do a lot of alt tag stuffing. At least with text link that is usually visible to the reader and stuffing wouldn’t happen (because the content would be removed).

By: SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 22, 2009

SearchCap: The Day In Search, July 22, 2009 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:56:11 +0000

[...] The Value of Image Optimization – Further Testing, SEOpittfall [...]

By: AB Web Design, LLC

AB Web Design, LLC — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:21:24 +0000

Excellent, and super-interesting study. I find it funny that the images with alt tags alone posted better results than both alt and title. One would think that supplying more relevant information by utilizing the title tag would be a good thing, but apparently it may be considered over-optimization by Google. I would be interested to see this same study done again to verify results.

Cheers,
Chris

By: arnie00717

arnie00717 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:14:46 +0000

Nice job done,
Earlier i was doing title and alt both but now i will go for alt only. Though one thing i did differently. I didn’t gave the alt and title the same words. Thanks

By: SEO Moves

SEO Moves — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:33:52 +0000

Interesting article, I think I will add some image testing to my sites, as I wonder if this could be true. One would think the spiders would prefer to see additional information and I agree with the first commenter that slight varied alt and title text might produce the best image results, but SEO= testing, testing testing.

I have bookmarked your website, first time visitor.

Thanks

By: SEO voor plaatjes: Vergeet de title, gebruik de alt-tag | Traffic4u Weblog

SEO voor plaatjes: Vergeet de title, gebruik de alt-tag | Traffic4u Weblog — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:41:10 +0000

[...] zo af en toe zien we toch hele interessante onderzoeken langskomen. Zoals nu het onderzoek dat SEO Pittfall deed naar image optimalisatie. Optimalisatie voor plaatjes is wat simpeler, omdat er minder [...]