Relying on ALT Text as part of Your SEO Game Plan

7 Deadly SEO Mistakes, Part 6: Relying on ALT Text as part of Your SEO Game Plan Hello again, It's sad. :( We're down to the last two lessons in your "7 Deadly SEO Mistakes" course. In this chapter, we want to warn you about how we can be swayed by SEO "tricks" and "hacks". With this one example, we hope to show why you should always be aware of the consequences of any shortcut you might be tempted to take with SEO. You can read this part of the course online, or feel free to read Part 6 right here in your email if you like. MISTAKE 6: Relying on ALT Text as part of Your SEO Game Plan You've read the articles. Seen the "test results" on how "unique text" in the ALT text of a graphic was indexed ... thus "Use ALT Text for SEO as it is just like Anchor Text." Um ... not so fast. In a recent Going Natural Video from Dan Thies, Dan teaches the "art of testing" and in it he says just because something gets indexed, doesn't necessarily mean it's a part of Google's ranking algorithm. Let's face it. When it comes to SEO, you want to do what is most important to get highly ranked. Over the last three years a trend has developed which shows using ALT text for SEO purposes has diminished. SEO set aside, what about the American Disabilities Act (ADA)? Did you know they have strict guidelines as to what your site needs to contain in order to be ADA compliant? I guarantee you; they do not look favorably at ALT text that has been keyword stuffed. Have you ever witnessed a visually impaired individual using the Web? Using a device which reads aloud the contents of a Web page, the impaired individual will be inundated with what I refer to as, "ALT Text Spam." Sometimes the reader is stuck on one graphic for more than 40 seconds reading all of the keywords that have been stuffed. That isn't a good experience for them. Every search engineer I have spoken to, from Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft all agree, what you should do is create an ALT [text] that is relevant to the picture, so it gives the user a good experience, including the visually impaired. The ALT text is indexed, but it is downgraded in the algorithm. The reason? "We see ALT text as being about as relevant as the Keyword Meta tag," said one Google engineer. That should say it all, as Google has never used the Keyword Meta Tag due to the high spam rate. Use ALT text in the manner in which it was designed to be used by the W3C: to describe the image. If appropriate, a keyword phrase can be used, but under no circumstances should you stuff the ALT tag with keywords. Keep it to a simple Description. For example, let's say you sell skin care products and have images of items throughout your site. A relevant and simple ALT tag would read: "Image of anti-aging eye cream, or sunspot fading cream image." SPAM Tip: Although ALT text may or may not be counted for relevancy; search engines may utilize it when evaluating sites for possible "spamdexing." Remember the purpose of ALT text is to describe the image for the benefit of those who surf the Web with images turned off, and for those who have the contents of Web pages read out loud to them. There are people who use the web who have impaired vision, and there is nothing worse than having 200 meaningless keyword phrases jammed into the ALT text read aloud to you by your OCR. Don't ruin someone's day. The WC3 highly recommends Web site owners use ALT text to describe images appropriately, and I second that recommendation. So know you know that for the webmaster who cares about SEO, temptation is everywhere. But if you take the wrong shortcut without knowing what you're doing, you can damage your reputation without even knowing it! Next time, we come to the FINAL lesson in the course. It's impossible for us to teach you EVERYTHING we know about SEO in just 7 little lessons. But we're going to end the course with a bang all the same and give you 10 (TEN!) Dangerous Myths you'd better DISbelieve if you're ever going to Stomp the Search Engines. Until next time, Keep Stomping! ~Andy Jenkins and the StomperNet Faculty and Staff Coming Next: "Deadly SEO Mistake #7: Believing the "Myths" that masquerade as "Truths" in many SEO Spaces"	See The Entire "Going Natural 6 SEO Video Series" If you haven't already seen these videos, you're missing one of the most valubable parts of your subscription to this report series! These eye-opening SEO videos from StomperNet faculty Dan Thies and Leslie Rohde have already been helping people just like you change their fortunes online. It starts with "LSI is LAME!" with Leslie Rohde, and the video is available here. Then, see "Referential Integrity Rocks" with Leslie Rohde, available right here. Then finally, "Next Level SEO" video with Dan Thies is available right here. These videos are free to watch and you have no obligation to buy or sign up for anything. Don't skip this opportunity for FREE ADVICE from two of the most sought-after SEO experts in the world
Copyright (c) 2009 StomperNet LLC.

Cache date of linking page not verified

7 Deadly SEO Mistakes, Part 5: Cache date of linking page not verified Only three lessons left in your "7 Deadly SEO Mistakes" course and this time, as promised, we're taking it off-site. Mistake #5: Cache date of linking page not verified Read this part of the course online, and get (you guessed it) another case study video specially selected from literally hundreds of candidates Click Image Above to Play Watch the video and read Part 5 online at the link above, or save the video for later and read this part of the course below: Acquiring quality links to a site is a major part of any SEO effort. Therefore, a lot of effort is made and budgets are spent in acquiring links. Simple enough. It is true that most serious SEOs take great care in acquiring links. The days of randomly acquiring huge number of links are long gone. How do you take "care"? By making sure the following things are true: The linking page is not from a "bad neighborhood" The number of links on the linking page isn't too high The linking site is relevant to your topic The link anchor text is relevant to the keywords The linking page enjoys a good PageRank In general, the pedigree of the link is established through several parameters, just as would be done if it was a marriage proposal. That's good, and that's the way it should be. When it is decided that the link passes all tests and is worth acquiring, before you pull the trigger, make sure you check the cache date. Often, we go to great lengths to make sure the site is a real link, that it looks good, and isn't "spamming"...that we fail to ensure Google is actually spidering the page. Because if they aren't, the link is essentially worthless. This is probably the most vital step that too many Webmasters fail to check. Think of the cache dates as a carton of milk in your fridge. Milk is generally good for about three weeks. Beyond that, you start running into "problems," right? The same is true for indexing. If a page goes longer than three weeks without being spidered by Google, there's a problem. If it's been a couple of months, there is a MAJOR problem. It's easy to check the cached date of a page. Just put its URL in the search box and if it is indexed it should show up at the top of the search results. Below the snippet you will find the link to the cached version of the page. Click on it and you will be able to know when it was last cached. That's it. That's all! Yet legions of link builders omit this step and end up linking to pages that have no link juice to offer. Recommendation: Before you spend a lot of effort in determining the pedigree of a linking page, do a quick check of the page's last cached date. If it is not very recent don't bother enquiring further and move on to the next option. Bonus Step: Check for Spam Links - especially in a Blog. With malware infections becoming more and more common online these days, sites and blogs are being "compromised" without the Webmaster even knowing it. Typically, the Spammer will place dozens, hundreds, or even thousands and links "hidden" in the code to their Viagra, Casino, Porn, etc. sites. How can you check? It's pretty simple. Just do a site command in Google. For example: site:patioshoppers.com casino This will check the domain for any reference to the word "casino." If you get a few hundred pages returned and you are NOT in the casino business, chances are VERY good you've been hacked. Other phrases you should check would be: porn Viagra cialis casino Just check those four and it will take you less then two minutes to run the check. If you're in the SEO business, and you find evidence of a hack attempt on a prospect's site, guess what? You've probably just landed their business. For future searches, I would highly recommend setting up a Google Alert. (NOTE: You can see my fellow StomperNet Faculty Member Dan Thies explain this in this video.) I think it's possible that you've just saved yourself days of wasted time and effort (weeks if you're like me). Now that you know what link leads are worth pursuing (and which aren't) you're head and shoulders above 90% of your search competition. But we won't stop there. Let's go back into your website once more to look at a trap a LOT of webmasters are falling into these days. And it's hiding in your IMAGE tags. But you'll have to wait until Part 6 to see. Don't worry! It's coming very soon! Until next time, Keep Stomping! ~Andy Jenkins and the StomperNet Faculty and Staff Coming Next: "Deadly SEO Mistake #6: Relying on ALT Text as part of Your SEO Game Plan"	See The Entire "Going Natural 6 SEO Video Series" If you haven't already seen these videos, you're missing one of the most valuable parts of your subscription to this report series! These eye-opening SEO videos from StomperNet faculty Dan Thies and Leslie Rohde have already been helping people just like you change their fortunes online. It starts with "LSI is LAME!" with Leslie Rohde, and the video is available here. Then, see "Referential Integrity Rocks" with Leslie Rohde, available right here. Then finally, "Next Level SEO" video with Dan Thies is available right here. These videos are free to watch and you have no obligation to buy or sign up for anything. Don't skip this opportunity for FREE ADVICE from two of the most sought-after SEO experts in the world
Copyright (c) 2009 StomperNet LLC.