Image guidelines for SEO

Search engines can interpret and evaluate only text and links; they cannot interpret image files. Search engines use the text in the alt attribute of an <img> tag as supplementary information for the image file. In addition, alt attribute text is used by audio readers for the visually impaired.

Review each <img> tag in the site to make sure that it contains an alt attribute that has text that is relevant to the image.

Check each <img> tag for the following:

• Every <img> tag should have an alt attribute that contains text.

  For more information, see WEB1009 - The <img> or <area> tag does not have an 'alt' attribute with text.

• An alt attribute should not start with "copyright," the copyright symbol [© or (c)], or any other character or symbol that has no search-engine relevance.

  For more information, see WEB1000 - The 'alt' attribute of the <img> or <area> tag begins with words or characters that provide no SEO value.

• An alt attribute should contain fewer than 150 characters.

  For more information, see WEB1019 - The 'alt' attribute of the <img> or <area> tag contains too many characters.