alt image text

There’s no standard, so use as many as you want. Typically, the alt should either be the same as or similar to the image’s title.

Erm… sorry but not quite correct. The alt text should provide a short but informative description of the image for those who cannot view it. Whilst this may be similar to the image’s title most of the time (especially if you do give your images good, human-readable, titles), replicating the title may not be enough in some cases. A good rule of thumb is to imagine reading out the contents of a page – including its image(s) – over the phone. If you need more than the image title to describe the image, then you may need more than that in the alt attribute.

The one exception is for purely decorative images which should use a null alt attribute (alt="").

Personally I’d suggest sticking to 255 characters or less. And don’t try to use the image alt attribute for keyword stuffing. Google is quite good at recognising this kind of black hat SEO.

Thanks, Esmi! That’s why you’re the Theme Diva. ??

Yes, I often use humorous, or cute titles for images, but for the ALT tag, I write something much more descriptive… such as “woman hammering a nail into a wall”.

And this is with hyphens-between-words?

(Thank you all!)

James, I’m not sure if she’s a diva…perhaps goddess??

Grateful Paula

And this is with hyphens-between-words?

Hyphens are not necessary, though you can use them if you want to.

James, I’m not sure if she’s a diva…perhaps goddess??

Well, her forum title is “Theme Diva,” though she might just be modest.

Actually–I guess the name would have hyphens?…Perhaps the alt text <i>doesn’t</i>?

As you can see, total noob-doozie on this end. : /

Paula

for the ALT tag, I write something much more descriptive… such as “woman hammering a nail into a wall”.

That’s a really good example. ??

@dowbright: You don’t need hyphen between words in either your image titles or their alt texts. Hyphens are normally just needed for filenames – which are never seen (hopefully) on the front end of a site. Keep your titles very short. In practice, use titles that are meaningful for you and will help you to locate the right image when you have over 500 images in your Media Library. Although the title attribute is displayed on the front end of the site, it has very little SEO weight (primarily because it’s been so abused in the past), so whatever works for you should be fine.

With alt texts, a short descriptive sentence is really all you need. Avoid using an special or unusual characters, though, as they may not display correctly on the final page.

James, you were right. Modest.

Very clear, and all previous mud is now clear to me.

For me, it’s goddess. Goddess of the alt info! And probably more.

But I’m sure you’re very wise as well, James.

Thanks to all.

The Noob Paula