Do search engines read alt text (was: Re: using Avant Garde font)

[Osmo Saarikumpu]

[OT]
Chris F.A. Johnson kirjoitti:

> I put up a page, <http://cfajohnson.com/testing/alt.html>, which
> has nothing but an image with the alt text "Toronto SEO test".
>
> A google search for "Toronto SEO test" (with the quotes) finds the
> page.

So it does. It does not seem to rank very highly without the quotes. I
guess that we could surmise that the info from 2005:

The ALT text is indexed, but it is down graded in the algorithm.¹

is still current.

Follow up to comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc

¹ http://www.searchengineguide.com/robin-nobles/how-important-i.php

--
Best wishes,
Osmo

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

On 2009-10-12, Osmo Saarikumpu wrote:
> [OT]
> Chris F.A. Johnson kirjoitti:
>
>> I put up a page, <http://cfajohnson.com/testing/alt.html>, which
>> has nothing but an image with the alt text "Toronto SEO test".
>>
>> A google search for "Toronto SEO test" (with the quotes) finds the
>> page.
>
> So it does. It does not seem to rank very highly without the quotes. I
> guess that we could surmise that the info from 2005:
>

> The ALT text is indexed, but it is down graded in the algorithm.?
>
> is still current.

I wouldn't expect a page like that, with no content, to rank highly
at all. With the quotes, it is the only page returned (besides this
thread).

--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
===================================================================
Author:
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (2005, Apress)