Over-Optimization Inquiry

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

There has been mixed opinions regarding the best practices in using alt tags/image titles. I am looking to avoid over optimization techniques that are potentially hurting my site.

Right now I have a website in the crafts/DIY niche and every one of the page titles on the site are long tail keywords. Every page title is the main targeted keyword and for every one of those, that keyword is the image alt tags/image title.

I have been told that the alt tag/image title for a post should NOT be the keyword your going after so what I'm looking for here is the best practice in dealing with these alt attributes.

Should I change it to something other than the ranking keyword?

Or not putting anything at all be a better approach? If I do this, will I lose rankings? Would like to know all the repercussions of these actions.

I need to know what is the best approach here in avoiding over optimization penalties. Any insight or recommendations would be greatly appreciated here!

[trung.ngo]

Hi,

The question you should really be asking yourself is if the keywords in the image alt text are an accurate description of the image. The goal should be to get the image to rank for relevant queries in image results or universal results.

If you're simply targeting the same keywords in the title and image alt text, but it's completely relevant, then I wouldn't worry about it so much. Google's over-optimization penalty (I assume you're referring to Penguin) usually affects sites with much more nefarious spam techniques than what you've described. Things like keyword stuffing accompanied by a ton of keyword-rich links to the page from low quality sites.

If you want to check to see how the algorithm changes affect your site, you could look at the Penguin update dates on Moz's algorithm change page and compare it to your site traffic. If you've been hit by Penguin, you'll likely see a steep drop in traffic after one of the algorithm change dates.

-Trung