Search Engine Optimisation - ALT TEXT

Contents:

• Search Engine Optimisation.
• Search Engine Optimisation - Introduction and Body Text.
• Search Engine Optimisation - Meaningful Sub-Headings and Emphasis.
• Search Engine Optimisation - TITLE and META TAGS.
• Search Engine Optimisation - ALT TEXT, off the page factors and summary.

< IMG SRC=" imagename.gif" WIDTH=" 000" HEIGHT=" 000" BORDER=" 0" ALT=" The Guide to Writing & Editing Online" >

Alternative text is inserted in the code of pages to describe image content.  You can liken it to a caption the browser displays when the reader does not want to or cannot see the pictures presented in a web page. It also appears as a label when a mouse is rolled over an image on a web page. (Fig 7.2)

Since many search engines consider alternative text when indexing pages, using alt text containing relevant key phrases during search engine optimisation can improve the search engine ranking of the page for those words.

Of course, you will only be able to influence this if you know what images are going to be used with your copy.

< NOTE>

Alt Text is also important from an accessibility perspective. This is because computers cannot interpret images and present them in a meaningful, alternative format.

Alternative text, therefore, gives the computer something to present to the user. This is important for users who have turned off image-loading in their web browsers, those using text-based browsers, and people who are blind and require the use of a screen reader to read the contents of the screen.

More information on accessibility can be found within the website of The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at:

http://www.w3.org/

You can also use BobbyT, a comprehensive web accessibility software tool designed to help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines:
http://bobby.watchfire.com/

< /NOTE>

Search Engine Optimisation - Off The Page Factors

In a further bid to deliver relevant results, search engines also consider various off the page factors. They include:

• Inward and outbound links.
• Click-through measurement.

The click-through measurement is the assessment of what pages are selected from the results of a particular search.  If some high-ranking pages aren't frequently attracting clicks, they may be dropped in favour of others that do attract clicks.

This will be beyond your control other than by being influenced by your choice of Title Tag content (what the user sees within the link at the top of your listing).

However, during search engine optimisation activity, you may be able to influence the inbound and outbound links - what sites are being linked to or from (in terms of quality and relevance) and the text used within those links (meaningful and usefully descriptive content).

This is, currently, particularly important of Google which uses links as part of its PageRank assessment (the system is uses for ranking web pages).

From Google:

'PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value.

'In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyses the page that casts the vote.

'Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important".'

However, while off-the-page factors may always have some influence as the search engine sands shift (try saying that quickly!), the true and focused content of your web site will win through.

That is, as long as relevancy matters more than payment for position.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION SUMMARY

When you first picked up this book, you may not have considered writing for search engines and search engine optimisation. However, by following the items above, you will have increased the likelihood of your web page content being found by searchers and, therefore, increased the likely number of readers.

Search Engine Optimisation

Writing For Search Engines

Sample material from "Content Is King - Writing and Editing Online"

By David Mill
Butterworth Heinemann

Contents:

• Search Engine Optimisation.
• Search Engine Optimisation - Introduction and Body Text.
• Search Engine Optimisation - Meaningful Sub-Headings and Emphasis.
• Search Engine Optimisation - TITLE and META TAGS.
• Search Engine Optimisation - ALT TEXT, off the page factors and summary.

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