Basics of Search Engine Optimization for Education - Tip #7 - Images

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Tip #7 - Image ALT Tags - For every image on your webpage, you have the ability to give it both a short and long description. These descriptions can actually help your webpage place higher in a search engine because they are read just like any other content on that web page and help the search engine determine the relevance of the page to the search that is being conducted. Don't go overboard, such as repeating a word 5 times, as this can cause a whole host of issues for your site. Use common sense in this case, if it isn't something you wouldn't normally write, then don't put it, because you could get your website banned from the search engines and you may also cause your website to not comply with ADA rules. But if you have a campaign focused on encouraging high school completion and a web page with a picture of students, it is perfectly legitimate to label that picture with "Students graduating from high school" rather than just "Students." In fact, a good descriptive image tag is encouraged by the ADA, as it is meant to help individuals with disabilities understand what content you have on your website, including the images. The nuance of this is that the words you select to be descriptive are not arbitrarily selected from what you happen to be describing the images with. Instead you are using words that have been selected due to their search engine value, which in turn has been based on a study of what is relevant to your market.