It is a great idea to add pictures in your blog posts. They not only help attract your readers to read your posts, but can also help you rank higher in the search engines. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so you can see how they help attract readers to actually read your posts, but how can Google and other search engines see pictures as an advantage and rank your site higher up in their search results?

This Brings Us To Our 3rd SEO For Wordpress Tip: How Use The <ALT> Tag For Your Images

You are probably asking what in the world is and ALT tag anyway and how is this going to help me with SEO?

- To keep it simple and ALT tag is simply the description of your picture or image.  This is Not visible to your readers,

However;

- This description will shows up on your readers screen if the actual image for some reason does not load/display on their browser. Your reader will then see the description of the picture where the picture would have been.

- By using this description <ALT> tool will also help people with impaired vision who rely on different screen reading technology in order to view web pages.  Where the screen reader will actually read the text within the <ALT> tags from the image.

Now comes the biggest kicker as to why you should always use the <ALT> tag for your images!

- ALT tags are very helpful when it comes to Search Engine Optimization!

- The search engines use the information you provide in the description/<ALT> tags to further classify the overall content of your blog or website.

- In other words the search engines use the description of your images as KEYWORDS!!!

- So if you want to rank higher on certain keywords then make sure that your main keywords are present within the <ALT> tags or description of your images.

So How Do You Insert A Description Into Your Images?

Well if you have a regular website that uses HTML you can use this code:

<img src=”http://yourdomainname.com/image.png”  alt=”Here is where you put your image description”/>

OR….

Wordpress Makes this process even more simple.

- Use your WordPress image uploader to add an image to your post (This can be done by clicking the Add an Image button right next to the Upload/Insert text within your Add a New Post page, OR by going to media –> add new–>Select Files –>Select your image and press ok

- After you selected your image you want to upload there will be a screen that should pop up that looks like the following:

- In the box that says description you want to type your description of the image this is what will be shown in your <ALT> tags also remember to put your main keyword within this section to help with SEO.

- When you are finished Click the save button or if you insert into post button depending on where you inserted your image from.

Till Next Post,

Krista

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