What is Alt Text or “Alt Tags” Alt text (or as they are colloquially known Alt Tags) are small pieces of text description that are associated with images in html and explain what a specific image on a website depicts. <img src="image.jpg" alt="this is alt text" /> They were originally created to make the web more accessible, by describing images to those who cannot see them. This includes people using browsers that don’t allow images but primarily sight impaired people who are using screen readers to convert a website’s content into audio or braille. Why is Alt Text important in SEO There is still little evidence to suggest that Google uses any form of image processing to infer what an image might be about. Instead Google is still heavily reliant on the content of alt text to understand what the images on a website are about. As a result it is important that we provide this information in alt text so that images that might be providing a user with important information on a website are understood better by Google. Best Practices Keep it readable. While alt text does provide us with an opportunity to inform Google about what our...

As shown below a search engine result is made up of three different elements: The URL of of the pageThe title of the pageThe meta description Meta descriptions are our opportunity to tell Google what content should appear below the title of a page on a Search Engine Result Page (SERP). It is both a change to encourage a user to click on our listing over the listing of others and also an opportunity to provide Google with information about what the page is about. Most SEO experts now believe that Meta Descriptions are not a ranking factor for Google, in other words having a meta description will not impact how well your page ranks for a particular keyword term. However they are still really important as a well written meta description will impact how likely someone is to click on your listing which in turn will impact your click through rate. In my opinion saying that Meta Descriptions are not a ranking factor is a little misleading. Yes it is not possible to draw a straight line between having one and an increase in how well your page ranks for a search term but it is an excellent opportunity...