Matching the Title with Alt Tags
The Alt tag is very special. The Alt tag is the standard way to describe what an image, photo or graphic might show if it were not visible in the user's Web browser. The Alt tag is also important for those with impaired vision that rely on software to interpret content.
For years, the Alt tag has been a target for search engine and content optimization. Graphic rich Web pages with little or no text have used the Alt tag to get better visibility than the actual content can provide on its own.
One optimization technique has been to make sure the Alt tag contains important keywords. This technique can often lead to Alt tag content that does not describe the graphic it is part of, but instead describes the Web page's content or topic.
The tables below show data on the usage of words found both in the Title tag (describing the Web page) and the Alt tag (describing the graphic) content.
| Title Words in Alt Tags: General Web Sites | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observed Element | Observed Category | % Found | Average | Min | Max | Median | 80 Percentile Range | |
| Title Words in Alt | General | 14.06 | 3.46 | 1.00 | 17.00 | 3.00 | 1.17 - 7.82 | |
| Title Number of Words | General | 99.63 | 9.16 | 1.00 | 511.00 | 12.33 | 2.55 - 14.83 | |
| Title Length in Characters | General | 99.71 | 60.67 | 1.00 | 2,395.00 | 85.50 | 18.68 - 105.12 | |
| Title Words in Alt Tags: Web Sites in SE Positions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Observed Element | Observed Category | % Found | Average | Min | Max | Median | 80 Percentile Range | |
| Title Words in Alt | Prominent SE Position | 18.36 | 2.97 | 1.00 | 11.00 | 1.57 | 1.00 - 6.63 | |
| Title Number of Words | Prominent SE Position | 99.74 | 8.52 | 1.00 | 46.00 | 8.71 | 2.63 - 14.34 | |
| Title Length in Characters | Prominent SE Position | 99.74 | 60.62 | 5.00 | 388.00 | 64.71 | 19.77 - 102.11 | |
The above data shows that Web sites in prominent search engine positions are more likely to include words in the Title tag in the Alt tag, but using fewer words. This is an indicator that these Web sites pay more attention to matching the Title content with the Alt tag.
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