Alt Attributes causing Googlebot to follow links?

**TVIDesign** · 11-02-09

One of our clients (we are a web design company) has hired an SEO company called Weblinx to help them and they have made some suggestions that they'd like us to follow.

They are suggesting that Googlebot follows links that contain images which had alt="something" but they are saying googlebot WILL NOT follow the link if we remove the alt tag! The HTML looks like this...

Code:

<a href="http://domain.com"><img src="file.gif" alt="company name" /></a>

I have never heard of this before and I am worried about advice like this being given to our clients, should I be?

**Paul Smith** · 11-02-09

We've never heard of Google not following a image link because there's no ALT tag present, it's certainly something we will test.

On the other hand, it is good SEO practice (and usability practice) to have keyword relevant ALT tags so I wouldn't be too concerned, their point about having it is valid, though maybe they could have explained it better...

**Brendon** · 11-02-09

>> but they are saying googlebot WILL NOT follow the link if we remove the alt tag!

A ridiculous assertion. It's a good idea to use alt attributes with img links, as it then acts as anchor text, but the idea that G (or any SE) will IGNORE a link because it doesn't have an option attribute is rubbish

**TVIDesign** · 11-02-09

They are actually telling us that we should REMOVE an alt attribut from an image that links to one of their partners to ensure that googlebot doesn't follow it.

I thought it was crazy too.

**Brendon** · 12-02-09

Removing alt text will remaove a lot of the value of the link, but it will still be followed

**Barry** · 12-02-09

Originally Posted by Brendon

Removing alt text will remaove a lot of the value of the link, but it will still be followed

Originally Posted by Brendon

A ridiculous assertion. It's a good idea to use alt attributes with img links, as it then acts as anchor text, but the idea that G (or any SE) will IGNORE a link because it doesn't have an option attribute is rubbish

I agree with Brendon.

Ta

Baz

**Jack Russell** · 12-02-09

Alt tags rank moderately high in importance for ranking factors. I agree with that since search engines don’t crawl images. The alt tag is almost the only clue search engines have for ranking images. They do look at surrounding text on the page and page quality factors, etc.

You can refer to Makeshift Anchor Text... Link Title Attribute vs Image Alt Tags: Which is Better? : SEO Book.com for more information.

**sgpratley** · 12-02-09

Complete tosh!

It will devalue the link a little as there will be no link text giving Google extra 'clues' what the site is about, however it won't stop Google following this link at all.

Bloody SEO snake oil salesmen, they give the whole online industry a bad name.

I've had this so many times with SEO's who have been paid to do an audit on one of our sites, found nothing of any great note to report back on and come up with rubbish like this to justify their existence. Then the client thinks it's a black and white issue, like if you have one alt tag missing you'll never be seen in Google, and starts panicking about stuff that's no more use than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

If they just put their hands up and said 'this is good enough, lets spend your money on content & links instead', everyone would be a lot more successful.