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supportIs there a technical reason why the captions are not used to fill the alt attribute?
Hi Ralf, yes, there are some technical reasons why it’s not worth automatically using image captions as alt text. Human written titles typically make perfect alt text, but human written captions are typically too lengthy for alt text and are already visible on the page – these two effects are both bad for SEO. To elaborate: * Image alt text is “semi hidden content” and is therefore automatically treated with extra suspicion by search engines when scanning for “keyword stuffing” which is an old fashioned spam tactic. So if images have chunky alt text, especially if the images are small, it can be interpreted by search engines as “keyword stuffing within semi hidden content”, so the site’s rankings could get penalised/lowered in search results. * Captions are visible on the page beside the image, so for search engines and screenreader-assisted users (the people we make alt text for) the caption appears twice (in place of the image and beside the image) – this is a bad user experience and will be deemed by search engines as minor “duplicate content” which is at worst a spam signal and at best a sign of editorial incompetence so rankings may fall further. References These articles don’t go into detail on this particular issue but they do provide context & explanation of the technical SEO terms I’ve used here. Keyword stuffing: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358 Hidden text: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 Duplicate content: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359 Things to Avoid > Duplicate content and Keyword Stuffing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan .
Yes, there are some technical reasons why it’s not worth automatically using image captions as alt text. Human written titles typically make perfect alt text, but human written captions are typically too lengthy for alt text and are already visible on the page – these two effects are both bad for SEO. To elaborate: * Image alt text is “semi hidden content” and is therefore automatically treated with extra suspicion by search engines when scanning for “keyword stuffing” which is an old fashioned spam tactic. So if images have chunky alt text, especially if the images are small, it can be interpreted by search engines as “keyword stuffing within semi hidden content”, so the site’s rankings could get penalised/lowered in search results. * Captions are visible on the page beside the image, so for search engines and screenreader-assisted users (the people we make alt text for) the caption appears twice (in place of the image and beside the image) – this is a bad user experience and will be deemed by search engines as minor “duplicate content” which is at worst a spam signal and at best a sign of editorial incompetence so rankings may fall further. References These articles don’t go into detail on this particular issue but they do provide context & explanation of the technical SEO terms used in this answer. Keyword stuffing: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358 Hidden text: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 Duplicate content: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359 Duplicate content & Keyword Stuffing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a
Hi Ralf, yes, there are some technical reasons why it’s not worth automatically using image captions as alt text. Human written titles typically make perfect alt text, but human written captions are typically too lengthy for alt text and are already visible on the page – these two effects are both bad for SEO. To elaborate: * Image alt text is “semi hidden content” and is therefore automatically treated with extra suspicion by search engines when scanning for “keyword stuffing” which is an old fashioned spam tactic. So if images have chunky alt text, especially if the images are small, it can be interpreted by search engines as “keyword stuffing within semi hidden content”, so the site’s rankings could get penalised/lowered in search results. * Captions are visible on the page beside the image, so for search engines and screenreader-assisted users (the people we make alt text for) the caption appears twice (in place of the image and beside the image) – this is a bad user experience and will be deemed by search engines as minor “duplicate content” which is at worst a spam signal and at best a sign of editorial incompetence so rankings may fall further. References These articles don’t go into detail on this particular issue but they do provide context & explanation of the technical SEO terms I’ve used here. Keyword stuffing: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358 Hidden text: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 Duplicate content: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359 Things to Avoid > Duplicate content and Keyword Stuffing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan . This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by Dan .
Yes, there are some technical reasons why it’s not worth automatically using image captions as alt text. Human written titles typically make perfect alt text, but human written captions are typically too lengthy for alt text and are already visible on the page – these two effects are both bad for SEO. To elaborate: * Image alt text is “semi hidden content” and is therefore automatically treated with extra suspicion by search engines when scanning for “keyword stuffing” which is an old fashioned spam tactic. So if images have chunky alt text, especially if the images are small, it can be interpreted by search engines as “keyword stuffing within semi hidden content”, so the site’s rankings could get penalised/lowered in search results. * Captions are visible on the page beside the image, so for search engines and screenreader-assisted users (the people we make alt text for) the caption appears twice (in place of the image and beside the image) – this is a bad user experience and will be deemed by search engines as minor “duplicate content” which is at worst a spam signal and at best a sign of editorial incompetence so rankings may fall further. References These articles don’t go into detail on this particular issue but they do provide context & explanation of the technical SEO terms used in this answer. Keyword stuffing: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358 Hidden text: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353 Duplicate content: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66359 Duplicate content & Keyword Stuffing: https://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a