alt and title attributes in images and seo

Exploring web attributes related

to image accessibility and their

impact on search engine indexing Reinaldo Ferraz – CEWEB.br

Objective

• Facilitate the participation of Brazilian community in global Web development

enviroment

Mission

• Promote activities that encourage the use of open technologies and

standardized on the Web.

Web Technologies Study Center

• Accessible images on the web

• ALT and TITLE attributes

• Search Engine Optimization

• The experiment

• Exploring the ALT attribute

• Exploring the TITLE attribute

• Conclusion

Summary

• Images on the web needs alternative text, for screen readers users

Accessible images on the web

Picture of keyboard keys W, 3 and C

• ALT attribute is used to show alternative content in images

• <img src=“pic.jpg" alt=“Picture of keyboard keys W, 3 and C">

• TITLE attribute is used to provide complementary information

• <img src=“pic.jpg" title=“Credits: John Lord">

ALT and TITLE attributes

ALT and TITLE attributes

<img src="ULjpB0be_400x40.jpg" alt="Ceweb.br " title=“Web Technologies Study Center">

• The technique of developing websites in a way that they are search-

engine friendly is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

• This technique consists of a group of technical strategies used to

increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-

ranking position in the search engine results page

• Search engine optimization is based on making small modifications

to parts of websites (including image descriptions).

Search Engine Optimization

• Alternative texts are important for Web Accessibility but how this

texts are indexed by search engines on the Web?

• Three images were published in a post in my personal blog.

• Images were published without ALT/TITLE attribute declared. The

page was updated later with the attributes filled.

• The tests were made using Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo

search engine and the SEO verification tools Site Analyser,

WooHank and SEO Works

• The SEO verification tools were chosen at random and there was no

intention of promoting or recommending their use.

The experiment

During the first phase of testing, three images were published on the blog http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br, without ALT or TITLE attributes. <img src="http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/tr47ujhtt767.png"> <img src="http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/aswe98jdk93.png"> <img src="http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/yjjl9675yp.png">

Exploring ALT attribute

The content was indexed by search engines.


The page was scanned by three automatic SEO checker tools.


Second part: The images had their ALT attributes properly declared (in portuguese). <img src="http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/tr47ujhtt767.png" alt="Foto de um pão francês em um prato branco" > <img src="http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/aswe98jdk93.png" alt="Foto de uma ampulheta" > <img src="http://www.reinaldoferraz.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/yjjl9675yp.png" alt="Foto de uma placa com o mapa do zoológico de São Paulo" >


The tests were repeated using the same tools as in the previous phase.


Repeating the tests using the same SEO tools


The second experiment verified how the content of the TITLE attribute affected search results and if it is important to web accessibility.

Exploring TITLE attribute

Exploring TITLE attribute

• TITLE attribute is not indexed by search engine

• TITLE attribute has no weight for SEO verification tools

• TITLE attribute tooltip is only available via mouseover

• TITLE attribute is not implemented in the same way in three different

screen readers:

• JAWS does not read TITLE by default. It is necessary to set

the screenreader to read ALT or TITLE attributes of the page

• NVDA reads the attribute but does not identify which is ALT or

TITLE content

• VoiceOver reads TITLE attribute after a few seconds of

silence after read the ALT attribute

Exploring TITLE attributes

• The ALT attribute plays an important role in describing images on a

web page.

• ALT attribute content is indexed by Google Search Engine

• Only Google indexed the ALT attribute content: Yahoo, DuckDuckGo

and Bing did not show the attribute content in their search results.

• The TITLE attribute in images is not useful for SEO. The content in

images is not indexed.

• In terms of accessibility, the TITLE attribute is not keyboard-

accessible, and has not been implemented in a standardized

manner by screen readers.

Conclusions

Thank you www.ceweb.br

[email protected] @reinaldoferraz

June, 11th, 2015

alt and title attributes in images and seo

Internet