Photo tag shortcuts.

“The problem with your business is that everyone tells you something different.”

- Yoda (or someone like him.)

Google can’t tell what a photo is about unless you tell it what it is about. On your WordPress 2.5, there are fields like “title” (for the PHOTO, not the page) and “caption” (alt tag). There is also a field to describe the photo in more detail. Maybe it is a good idea to fill out all of these just to do things right. On the other hand, I like to take shortcuts if they don’t do any harm.

From reading and my own experimentation, the only one that seems to really to matter to the search engines is the “alt tag.” You can skip all of the others, but don’t skip filling out that field. Matt Cutts of Google tipped his hand on the issue by stating that the alt tag is important. In WordPress, the alt tag field might be seen as the “caption/alternate text” field when you are uploading photos. Alt tag fields are also important to visually impaired folks who use screenreaders to tour your website. If you stuff your alt tag with too many keywords, or terms that don’t relate to the photo or the post, visually impaired visitors might get aggravated. Google might get irked as well.

Are the other fields important?  If you are concerned about showing up in Google image searches, then it is a good idea.  On the other hand, it is a good idea to floss your teeth after every meal, always write thank-you notes, exercise for an hour every day, do yoga, call your mom, read your trade journals, and eat twenty servings of raw fruits and vegetables every day.  But do you really have time to do everything you are supposed to do?

If you mouse over this photo, the photo number will appear as the “title.” If you right-click on the photo to check the properties of the photo, you will see that the alt tag says “Northern MN lake.”

Important Points about Photo Tags

• Use relevant, accurate keywords to describe your photo.
• Don’t overstuff the alt tags with keywords, or use the same keyword over and over. Google will recognize this as “spam.” Google will spank!
• The “title” field for photo is what the visitors will read when they hold the mouse over the image. This might be handy for the visitors. I cannot determine that search engines care very much about this field.
• If you are going to take shortcuts, make sure you at least complete the “alt” tag.
• Before you insert the photo into the post click “none” for the link to the photo.  In most cases there is not a compelling reason to make a clickable link on the photo, and it just adds unecessarily to link saturation.

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