Does hover over content index well

[neilhenderson]

i notice increasing cases of portfolio style boxes on site designs (especially wordpress templates) where you have an image and text appears after hover over (sorry for my basic terminology).  does this text which appears after hover over have much search engine value or as it doesnt immediately appear on pageload does it carry slightly less weight like tabbed content?   any advice appreciated

thanks

neil

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Neil,

This is ALT text and should be filled in with each image that is added.

MOZ talk about use of ALT text here, and Google give you a lot of information that you should read here. Hoboweb able have a very useful document here.

-Andy

[neilhenderson]

thanks andy - sorry not sure if its alt text - i am referring to the kind of text that you see on a potfolio slider like the ones on this page - http://demo.olevmedia.net/amax/ text appear on white with red box over

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Ahh I see what you mean now.

I tend not to look at text like this as something for SEO benefits, but use them for usability purposes. It is not shown until after a hover event has happened, and although it is a neat way of it being shown, it doesn't do much for the page until you hover over it.

I would look at this in the same light as tabbed content. You aren't purposefully hiding it or trying to be cloak and dagger with it, but it is only ever going to be a snippet of information, so don't rely on this sort of thing for SEO purposes.

-Andy

[neilhenderson]

perfect thanks andy - thats what i thought so wont rely on it

[BeanstalkIM]

What you're referring to was discussed by John Mueller a while back and Andy's right ... it's devalued.

You can read a bit about what John said or listen to it yourself at https://www.seroundtable.com/google-hidden-content-tabs-19534.html.

Cheers.

[neilhenderson]

Perfect - thanks