-Alt- tags in FP2003 components

[Guest]

I see in FP2003 I can enter alt tags in page elements that were not possible (I think) in FP2002
Is it a good or bad thing for search engine recognition for me to enter alt tags within features like Hover Buttons and Background Images? Further, on a single web page it is negative or positive (again for search engine placement) for all alt tags to be the same?

 

[Jim Buyens]

I don't think it makes much, if any, difference. Just use
alt tags as they're intended: for displaying tool tips
and assisting vision-impaired visitors.

Most search engines these days seem to concentrate on
visible page text, and not on meta tags, alt attributes,
and other elements that people try to manipulate.

Jim Buyens
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
http://www.interlacken.com
Author of:
*----------------------------------------------------
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|| Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Inside Out
||---------------------------------------------------
|| Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition
|| Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out
|| Faster Smarter Beginning Programming
|| (All from Microsoft Press)
|/---------------------------------------------------
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-----Original Message-----
I see in FP2003 I can enter alt tags in page elements

that were not possible (I think) in FP2002.

Is it a good or bad thing for search engine recognition

for me to enter alt tags within features like Hover
Buttons and Background Images? Further, on a single web
page it is negative or positive (again for search engine
placement) for all alt tags to be the same?

 

[Kathleen Anderson [MVP - FP]]

Alt tags aren't meant to be used for improving search engine ranking. Alt
tags should be used to provide a text equivalent of the image if a visitor
is using a browser that doesn't support images, and they are read aloud by
screen readers used by people who can't see the images:
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/alt.html

 

[Tina Clarke]

I see in FP2003 I can enter alt tags in page elements that were not possible (I think) in FP2002.
Is it a good or bad thing for search engine recognition for me to enter

alt tags within features like Hover Buttons and Background Images? Further,
on a single web page it is negative or positive (again for search engine
placement) for all alt tags to be the same?

It's a bad thing to use fp hover buttons it's never bad to use alt tags.
With the hover buttons presumably your using them for a menu they would
refect the menu choice eg About or Sitemap. You should provide text links
when using hover buttons anyway. If your using a background image you don't
use a alt tag. You do for images, for repeated images like bullets use "" in
the alt section of picture properties. If you want to learn more SEO best
practices check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SEO_Techniques/ ... Free
Classes.

hth Tina