What are Alt Tags?

    For Images: A webmaster needs all the help he or she can get to get found on a Google search. Using Alt Tags (alternative text tags) is one small way to help optimize your site for the search engines. It is a legal way to squeeze in a couple more keywords. You may have already seen alt tags when you hover your mouse cursor over an image or photo and text magically appears for about 5 seconds. It will also be visible text if the image fails to load on the web page. Usually it is a short bit of text that describes the image, or if it is a hyperlink, the text may describe the goodies you will get if you click the link. Hover over the banner below to see an example of alt tags.

     To create the alt text for your web pages, all you need to do is add a bit of extra code in your HTML. You will have to do it for every image individually and it will be in the <img src> string. The following code would display the above image WITHOUT alt tags: 

<img src="http://www.ftjcfx.com/image-1512488-10568546" width="468" height="60"  border="0"/></a>

     The following code would display the above image WITH alt tags. All you need to add is the alt="" and insert your text between the quotes. (It is in red for illustration purposes only). Make sure to observe and maintain the spaces between areas in the text.

<img src="http://www.ftjcfx.com/image-1512488-10568546" width="468" height="60" alt="This text describes the really cool free website you can get from Microsoft!" border="0"/></a>

     For Text: You can also add an alt text title tag to a hyperlink. It is my opinion that this is more informational or decoration than the above image alt tag attribute. But if not overdone, a title text tag can't hurt. If you hover your mouse cursor over the text hyperlink below, you will see an example of a title alternative text tag.

Free Website Games

     You will have to do it for every text link individually and it will be in the <a href> string. The following code would display the above text link WITHOUT alt title tags: 

<a href="http://www.websitegames.org">Free Website Games</A>

     The following code would display the above text link WITH alt tags. All you need to add is the title="" and insert your text between the quotes. (It is in red for illustration purposes only). Make sure to observe and maintain the spaces between areas in the text.

<a href="http://www.websitegames.org" title="Free Webmaster Content">Free Website Games</A>