ALT TAGS for SEO - whats the latest recommendation?

[MikeSEOTruven]

ALT Tags used strategically have always been a part of my SEO recommendations (relevant, under 7 words, not keyword stuffed but focused on primary page keyword). I have been getting mixed views on updates that search engines don't use them anymore in ranking determination. The Q&A on this subject was last addressed in 2011, what is the most recent approach on this?

[Schwaab]

I think alt tags are still relevant.  It's another way of helping Google identify what a page is about.  Are a few alt tags alone going to make or break your rankings? Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to optimize what you can.

[Chris_CM]

I agree with what Schwaab said.  Alt tags alone are not going to significantly affect your rankings.  However, think of them from an accessibility standpoint.  If a user is using a screen scraper to view your page or browsing without images enabled, the alt text is the only piece of information they have to observe what would have been portrayed through the image.  Since search engines have always been about giving the users the best experience, there is reason to believe that having accurate alt tags for your images can help rankings in a way other than just keyword stuffing.

Hope this helps,

Chris Wilson

[Everett]

They're still relevant, especially for image search. I'd change one thing in your strategy though...

From "focused on primary page keyword"

to

"focused on describing the image"

Assuming you're using images relevant to the topic you can do both, but when you have to make a choice between those two choose the latter.