Alt text is quite simply the tags that tell what a .gif or .jpg image is about. It is considered by the search engines to be an important tag. While it may be not as important as the title, descriptions or keywords meta tag, it is still intelligent to utilize it correctly for SEO purposes. Primarily used by screen readers for the blind to let the user know what image is being presented on a web page, the alt text attribute is an effective way to include the primary keyphrase for a page.

Proper implementation of this tag can be a good way to help the search engines assign the keyword relevancy of image based navigation, to assist the visually impaired and to highlight the more important keyphrases on a page for the search engines. While not as important as it used to be, it is always good to cover your bases and ensure that there is a descriptive enough explanation of the image that also includes the primary keyphrase for the page. It’s the general consensus that text in the alt tag text should be no longer than 6-7 words long and be as relevant to the image as possible. Google itself has outlined the importance of alt text by saying they use the alt text, “to help determine the best image to return for a user’s query”. (http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114016)

Alt text is also helpful in that proper implementation can increase the chances of an image of a website showing up in Google’s universal search. If someone were to search for “the best cleaning widget for carpets” and a website selling that has correctly optimized the alt text for a carpet cleaning widget, they have the opportunity to show up in the image search in Google. This gives anyone utilizing their website for ecommerce a better chance of getting some helpful traffic as anyone seeing an image of something they want to buy are more prone to get to the next step and visit the website.

A few weeks ago we noticed that one of our clients had a single web page showing up multiple times in Google. In the SEO world, this is known as duplicate content and is generally frowned upon. The URLs for the two entries in question looked something like this:

http://www.domain.com/SubFolder
http://www.domain.com/subfolder

As you can see, the difference in case is what designates this as being two separate pages to the search engines, but they do in fact point to the same physical page. In the Linux world, this would not matter so much, because URLs are case sensitive, so one of the above URLs would throw a 404 or Page Not Found error. So in effect, only one page would get indexed. However, in the Windows world, URLs are not case sensitive, so both URLs would serve up the same webpage. Upon further examination of the internal linking structure, we noticed that the same case (lower) was being used to reference all of the internal URLs. The problem came from the outside world pointing to the same page in various case combinations. This meant that people who were linking to the website from the outside world could have potentially given the website duplicate content penalties from search engines, which is not good.

The solution to this problem is quite simple and elegant. We added one rewrite rule to the website’s .htaccess file, which permanently redirected (301) any URL containing upper case characters to its all lower case equivalent. Since you cannot predict, or enforce how people link to your website, we strongly suggest you utilize this simple solution to prevent this duplicate content penalty.

Pass me a Kleenex.
Put it in the Fridge.
I need some Halls for my throat.
Can I have a Coke?
Twitter me.
Catch me on Facebook.

My guess is, you are able to understand exactly what each of these statements mean. They are simple phrases which pack a huge branding punch. When I just say the word “Kleenex”, an image pops into your mind of a tissue. How about Facebook? You’re probably thinking of social media. Branding is about creating a specific thought or emotion in a consumer’s mind, leaving a deep impression.

Here’s an interesting and fun way to see how effective branding can be. Below are some random words which are associated with a company, service or product. What do they make you think of?

Mustang
French Fries
Tall Mocha
Just do it
MP3
Green Giant
Windows
Walt
Apple
Super
The quicker picker upper.
Dominos
Dolphins
To infinity…

Now we come to “Google”. The word “Google” itself has become an everyday household name, synonymous with search. Instead of saying, “Can you search for something on the internet?” many people just say, “Google it!” This type of branding is every Marketer’s dream come true.

Until next time, stay true to your brand, and your brand will stay true to you.