Last week we wrote about some brilliant changes that Google has made to Blogger; improving its search engine optimisation (SEO) functionality. We’ve already covered the improvements it’s made to the meta-description tag, so I thought today I would mention the added ALT attribute functionality. 

First though, why would you want to use ALT attributes at all and what are they anyway?

Simply put an ALT attribute (or an ‘alternative text’ attribute) is the description that a browser will display if the image isn’t yet showing due to your local settings. Originally, they were used to tell browsers for blind people what to read out. The idea was that you would describe your image clearly and then, when the browser found it on the page, it could tell a visually impaired user what the image was depicting.

However, clever old Google uses ALT attributes as a very important indicator of what your page is actually about. After all, if that’s what’s in the image, it must be relevant, right?

As a result, ensuring your ALT attribute contain your keywords as well as a clear description of the image is a sure fire way to improve your ranking.

In the past, adding an ALT attribute to an image in Blogger has been a bit of a kerfuffle, unless you know the basics of HTML. You had to view the HTML version of the post, locate the image in the code and add the ALT=“Insert ALT tag here” command.

But no longer! Now, all you have to do is click on the image itself, select ‘properties’ from the list of options presented and fill in the ALT attribute there and then – it’s called ‘title text’ in Blogger for some confusing reason.

 Bingo, added search functionality thanks to those lovely people at Blogger and there improved interface!

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