Does Google penalize a page with the image tag with alt and without src?

[Plivo]

Hi, I am curious whether Google penalizes a page with the image tag with a value in the "alt" attribute and without one in the "src" attribute?

Would this count as stuffing? Sometimes you cannot put an image but you would like to get SEO benefit by having a keyword in an image?

[FedeEinhorn]

Why would you create an image tag if there's no image to put? If the reason is just to put some words, then yes, that's stuffing, and you could be penalized.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There

Federico is right - you don't want to put an

However, I honestly don't think this one thing would be enough to penalize you. It might just be viewed as an error (kind of like a 404). But if you have a site with other issues (on-site or off-site) you don't want to do more things that could tip the scale towards a penalty.

Even if you did "get away with it" - I highly doubt you'd see much SEO benefit.

[George.Fanucci]

An image with no image? That would be just like an HTML error. It would be a mistake to think that doint this would be good for your SEO.