40 replies to this topic

[glengara]

The coiners of the phrase describe it as:

"Link Reputation" has to do with what is written "In The Link" that points to your page. This is either the text in the link or the text in the ALT Tag of an image link."

The implication seems to be that alt text in an image link is viewed much like anchor text in a textual link.
Are there any examples of this happening?

[Jill]

I've seen it before and believe it to be true. It's not something I notice as much lately, as more and more people are moving towards text links as opposed to banner links. But in years past I've seen sites that ranked at number one strictly because there were hundreds of graphical links that pointed to their page which had the keyword phrase in the alt attribute of the banner graphic.

This may or may not still be true. I was just looking for the old example I had seen, and there were still some of the banner links showing, but there were lots of other text links now too, so it's hard to say if it's still given as much weight as it was back at the beginning of 2002 when I first noticed it.

Jill

[ChrisB]

I definitely do not believe that alt text is weighed as heavily in these instances as anchor text is simply because Google tends to avoid things that can be easily spammed and this, along with a transparent gif, is a spammer's dream.

[glengara]

Would it not be more logical to use the title attribute to give "reputation" to a link, rather than Alt text which in theory describes the image?

[ChrisB]

I think it'd make more sense -- but again you're dealing with a spam issue.

Any text that isn't readily visible to the surfer is spam prone -- like comment tags are. Search engines, especially Google, tend to devalue such text or not count it at all.

The best solution is to use a text link, or simply fake a graphical one.

http://www.websitepu...graphical_link/

CSS is a wonderful tool.

[compar]

But in fact alt tags are visible in IE. And IE is what the 85% to 90% of people are using. So you can stuff them with keywords if you want but you run the risk that that might put some viewers off.

I don't see why Google should value and alt tag significantly less than a text anchor.

It has also been discussed elsewhere on this forum the the title attribute tag is probably totally ignored by Google. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the general opinion.

[ChrisB]

Alt text is not displayed on the main page unless you have images turned off.

Google would devalue it on the same basis as it would devalue title attribute text.

There are those who even claim that Google does not value either -- personally I've never done an experiment to verify this and since including appropriate text isn't going to penalize you I do it -- yet still I always use text based menus for my sites simply because of the overwhelming influence of anchor text.

[glengara]

*I don't see why Google should value and alt tag significantly less than a text anchor.*

To my mind they obviously do, as I haven't yet seen an allinalt: search function ;-)

The "received wisdom" is that Alt text for NON linked images is now discounted, and it may be just a matter of time before Alt text for LINKED images is also discounted.
So the exiting "Link Reputation" may turn out to have been......... boring old Link Text all the time.

Edited by glengara, 24 September 2003 - 03:30 PM.

[Jill]

The "received wisdom" is that Alt text for NON linked images is now discounted, and it may be just a matter of time before Alt text for LINKED images is also discounted.

No way. I have a hard time believing that Google would devalue the info in the alt attribute of clickable links, any more than they would devalue the text links. If they devalue one, then they will devalue them both.

Let's face it, most sites use graphical links for navigation, as well they should. That's a standard way of creating sites these days. I just don't see Google trying to tell people that they shouldn't use graphics for navigation.

If they devalued the alt in the link, and didn't devalue the text in a text link, that would essentially be telling people how to design their sites. I just don't buy it.

I do know for a fact that in the past, I have seen sites rank highly for keyword phrases simply by the backlink alt tag text. I will try to see if I can find an example of this still working.

Jill

[Scottie]

You might be interested in this thread at Cre8asite where ilovejackdaniels has been doing some testing on different elements with Google.

[glengara]

*I have a hard time believing that Google would devalue the info in the alt attribute of clickable links*

Why? The Alt attribute has nothing to do with the link itself.

[compar]

Alt text is not displayed on the main page unless you have images turned off.

Not exactly true. It is displayed when you mouse over it and you have to mouse over it to click on the link.

Google would devalue it on the same basis as it would devalue title attribute text.

And what basis is that???

There are those who even claim that Google does not value either -- personally I've never done an experiment to verify this and since including appropriate text isn't going to penalize you I do it -- yet still I always use text based menus for my sites simply because of the overwhelming influence of anchor text.

I agree text based menus are better, but I'm not sure why alt tags should be, or are, greatly devalued????

[ChrisB]

Not exactly true. It is displayed when you mouse over it and you have to mouse over it to click on the link.

Which is unlike the title attribute how?

You say alt attributes are different from title attributes because they can appear by default when viewing a page?

The alt attribute exists to provide a description about an image.

The title attribute exists to provide information about a link.

If you mouseover an image that is a link it will display the alt text.

If you mouseover text that is a link it will display the title text.

I fail to see the fundamental difference that would make one a valuable inclusion for search engines and the other not.

[Jill]

Why? The Alt attribute has nothing to do with the link itself.

I think it does.

I've set up a quickie test for this which is simple enough.

Will let you know when my results are in...

[torka]

Not exactly true. It is displayed when you mouse over it and you have to mouse over it to click on the link.

Only in IE, AFAIK. Mozilla and Netscape don't display the ALT text (dunno about Opera, but I would assume it doesn't either). Its purpose is actually supposed to be for describing the image for those with non graphical browsers or those who have their graphics turned off, not for displaying a "tooltip". Granted, most people do use IE...

However, all the browsers that I know of will display the TITLE text of a graphic when you mouse over it.

--Torka