Optimizing Images and Image Maps

**Anilrgowda** · 22-Dec-2006, 03:43 AM

Take advantage of your images on your web page they too can help you with your SEO Marketing.

Image & Spiders
Images in themselves cannot be read by spiders / robots. Images can however be used to assist in the optimization procedure if the <alt> and <title> attributes are used correctly.

Optimizing Images
The <alt> attribute has the fundamental purpose of briefly describing the image, so that if the image is not present for any reason, it can be replaced by the <alt> text (you may have now figured out that alt is an abbreviation for "alternate"). In most browsers however you can view both the image and the <alt> attribute simultaneously by having your mouse pointer over the image, in this scenario; the <alt> attribute serves as an assisting description. This tag is used by some search engines, while others do not use this tag unless the image is a link.

The <title> attribute serves a similar purpose as the <alt> attribute except that it is now more universal than the <alt> attribute. The Mozilla & Opera browsers do not show the <alt> attribute, they do however show the <title> attribute, therefore, for cross browser compatibility it is advised to use both the <alt> and <title> attributes simultaneously.

We recommend using both attributes with similar content, but not identical. If possible, use keywords that describe both the image and the page content. Do not use these attributes to "stuff" keywords as spam can be easily detected and your page may be banned from search engines. Because the <title> attribute is most universal, we recommend using the <title> attribute first.

Here is a code example of an image with both the <alt> and <title> attributes:

Code:

<img src="image.jpg" title="Image of Niagara Falls in summer - Click to Enlarge" alt="Niagara Falls in summer">

Image Maps
Although the use of image maps can save time and effort in cases where a single image should link to more than one URL, image maps cannot be read by search engines. This means that any links in the image maps will not successfully be crawled by search engines. Where possible, we highly encourage the use of regular HTML links in place of image maps.

Here is a code example of an image map:

Code:

 <MAP NAME="MyMap"> 
<AREA SHAPE="polygon" HREF="page1.htm" COORDS="26,185 238,185 238,216 55,216"> 
<AREA SHAPE="polygon" HREF="page2.htm" COORDS="76,238 355,238 355,271 109,271"> 
<AREA SHAPE="polygon" HREF="page3.htm" COORDS="131,294 395,294 395,330 171,330"> 
<AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="page4.htm" COORDS="234,349 361,366"> 
</MAP>

Code:

 Here is a code example of a regular HTML image link: 
<a href="page.html" title="Link title Text"><img src="image.jpg" alt="Image ALT Text" title="Image Title Text"></a>

22-Dec-2006, 03:43 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Optimizing Images and Image Maps Take advantage of your images on your web page they too can help you with your SEO Marketing. Image & Spiders Images in themselves cannot be read by spiders / robots. Images can however be used to assist in the optimization procedure if the <alt> and <title> attributes are used correctly. Optimizing Images The <alt> attribute has the fundamental purpose of briefly describing the image, so that if the image is not present for any reason, it can be replaced by the <alt> text (you may have now figured out that alt is an abbreviation for "alternate"). In most browsers however you can view both the image and the <alt> attribute simultaneously by having your mouse pointer over the image, in this scenario; the <alt> attribute serves as an assisting description. This tag is used by some search engines, while others do not use this tag unless the image is a link. The <title> attribute serves a similar purpose as the <alt> attribute except that it is now more universal than the <alt> attribute. The Mozilla & Opera browsers do not show the <alt> attribute, they do however show the <title> attribute, therefore, for cross browser compatibility it is advised to use both the <alt> and <title> attributes simultaneously. We recommend using both attributes with similar content, but not identical. If possible, use keywords that describe both the image and the page content. Do not use these attributes to "stuff" keywords as spam can be easily detected and your page may be banned from search engines. Because the <title> attribute is most universal, we recommend using the <title> attribute first. Here is a code example of an image with both the <alt> and <title> attributes: Code: <img src="image.jpg" title="Image of Niagara Falls in summer - Click to Enlarge" alt="Niagara Falls in summer"> Image Maps Although the use of image maps can save time and effort in cases where a single image should link to more than one URL, image maps cannot be read by search engines. This means that any links in the image maps will not successfully be crawled by search engines. Where possible, we highly encourage the use of regular HTML links in place of image maps. Here is a code example of an image map: Code: <MAP NAME="MyMap"> <AREA SHAPE="polygon" HREF="page1.htm" COORDS="26,185 238,185 238,216 55,216"> <AREA SHAPE="polygon" HREF="page2.htm" COORDS="76,238 355,238 355,271 109,271"> <AREA SHAPE="polygon" HREF="page3.htm" COORDS="131,294 395,294 395,330 171,330"> <AREA SHAPE="rect" HREF="page4.htm" COORDS="234,349 361,366"> </MAP> Code: Here is a code example of a regular HTML image link: <a href="page.html" title="Link title Text"><img src="image.jpg" alt="Image ALT Text" title="Image Title Text"></a>

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