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Metadata are an important factor in optimizing any website. Meta tags are a great way for website owners to provide search engines important information about your sites. One of the tags that probably requires the most clarification is the alternative text (alt text) relating to imagesEspecially how Google observes this tag since it is Google the most used search engine.

Google-the use of alternative text as a ranking factor is limited to image search. Does not add value to regular web search. In short, this is the answer given to this question by Google's search lawyer John Mueller during the last episode Google Search Central SEO of March 18th.

Google clarifies that alternative text is only an image search factor, not a common web search.

 

When alternative text is used

Mueller responds to several doubts about alternative text, leading to a number of conclusions about the impact it has on SEO.

Adding alt text attribute images are recommended from the point of view of accessibility, because it is useful for visitors who rely on screen readers. From an SEO standpoint, alternative text is recommended when your goal is to have search engine rankings.

 

Alternative text is (exclusively) for image search

In the matter of the title of this article, Mueller was asked if alternative text was used only for image search results.

alt-text-and-seo-seo-impact

Mueller this is exactly what he confirms.

From an SEO standpoint, the decision to use alternate text depends on whether you care about the images that appear in the image search. Google does not see the page as more valuable for web search because it has images with alternative text.

When it comes to using alternative text in general, Mueller recommends focusing on the accessibility aspect, not the SEO aspect.

 

"I think it's entirely up to you. So, I can't talk about the point of view of accessibility, so that's one point of view that exists. But from the point of view of SEO, alternative text really helps us to better understand the image for image search. And if you don't care that the image is ranked for image search, then it's okay to do whatever you want with it.

 It's something to describe the picture, which you sometimes just don't care about. For things like stock images where you know the same image is found on many other sites, you don't care to search for images for that. Do whatever you want there. Here I would focus more on the accessibility aspect than on the pure SEO aspect.

 It is not the case to say that a text web page has a higher value because it has images. We really only see alternative text and apply it to the image, and if someone is looking for an image, we can use it to better understand the image. It's not that a web page in a text web search is better ranked because it has an image with an alt tag".

 

Ceo MuellerYou can see the answer here.

 

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Made by Nebojsa Radovanovic - SEO Expert @Digitizer

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