Keyword in alt tag and future G Updates

[BobGW]

Hello,

I notice that it is common practice to put the page's keywords directly into an alt tag.

I don't see how this helps the user and how it helps the user using screen readers and such.

Do you think future G updates will slightly penalize pages with alt tags that are just the page's keywords and not a helpful phrase? What do you recommend to put in alt tags in light of future G updates?

[SEOSHARK]

I suggest writing for the reader.

1. if its for the reader you keep them on said page

2. write for the bots, the bots may bite.

[TimKelsey]

Hi Bob,

It probably wouldn't be hard for Google to go after sites with over-optimized alt tags - although I'm not sure they would think it's worth their time.

What I generally do with alt tags is try to describe the image and if possible, include keyword(s) naturally. If you're picking out relevant images for your site, this shouldn't be too hard, but I wouldn't try to stuff keywords into every little icon.

For example, if you have a computer repair website and the main image on your homepage is a technician working on a computer, you could use "computer repair services" as the alt tag, or if you wanted to be really descriptive, "technician repairing computer" wouldn't be bad either. But you probably don't want to force a keyword into a phone icon next your contact information.

The point of alt tags is to describe images that search engine bots can't see. So as long as you are being descriptive and not stuffing keywords for the sake of stuffing keywords, you should be fine.

Hope this helps.

Tim