Re: cross browser problem
- From: "Alan J. Flavell" <flavell@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:42:02 +0100
On Tue, 28 Jun 2005, guv wrote:
> On a site showing how to get better google results, it suggests
> filling the alt tags with your keywords.
Oh dear. Not fit to be discussed in polite company.
The alt text has a documented purpose, and works rather well for that
purpose. Please don't abuse it.
If there's any justice in the world, misuses of the kind you're
describing will get the site penalised or even disqualified for
keyword spamming...
> Obviously applicable to the picture and not a random word.
Nevertheless, it needs to make sense in its context.
The fundamental principle is expressed very well in the HTML4
specification, see:
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#h-13.8
where it says:
Several non-textual elements (IMG, AREA, APPLET, and INPUT) let
authors specify alternate text to serve as content when the element
cannot be rendered normally. Specifying alternate text assists users
without graphic display terminals, users whose browsers don't support
forms, visually impaired users, those who use speech synthesizers,
those who have configured their graphical user agents not to display
images, etc.
Note that key phrase "to serve as content". This isn't, in general,
about describing an image that they can't see; it *is* about being
properly formulated text which serves whatever *purpose* the image was
meant to serve. Only you as author know what you purposed by putting
an image there, so there are no patent solutions: it's up to you to
decide what you purposed, and thus what the "alternative text" needs
to be.
The WAI goes into some more detail about this, if you're interested,
but it doesn't contradict that general principle.
As already noted - if the image does nothing more than decoration, or
merely re-inforces something that's already on the page in text
anyway, then alt="" is not only appropriate, but is recommended.
Disclaimer: this is one of my specialist topics ;-)
http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/alt/alt-text.html
.
- Prev by Date: Re: HTTP 404 or 301 - Which ErrorDocument response
- Next by Date: Re: cross browser problem
- Previous by thread: Re: cross browser problem
- Next by thread: Re: cross browser problem
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
|
