Image alt tags, have you heard of them?  If you haven’t let me tell you.

Image alt tags are basically the alternative text you see when you hover over an image.  Image alt tags describe what the image is about.

here is an example of the HTML code of an image alt tag:

Image alt tags & SEO

So why are image alt tags important for SEO?  Well, in a nutshell, its because search engine spiders can’t read text in images and can’t tell what an image is about. 

Because search engine spiders can read text, they’re able to associate the alt tag of the image with the image and therefore know what that image is about.

To get the full SEO benefit from your image alt tag, make sure to include your target keyword in the image alt tag.  However keep your image alt text concise and do not under any circumstance stuff it with keywords! Engines do not like that and can potentially penalise you for spam if you practice such technique.

Happy coding!

Matt Cutts just posted a link to a presentation he made about SEO tips for Blogger.  Here is a quick summary:

SEO Tips for Blogs - General

• Don’t put blog at root page of domain 

• People link to main page and main blog page, so you get some extra links that way.

• Name your directory “blog“, not “wordpress”

• Might want to change your software someday

• Also makes upgrading easier

SEO tips: keywords

• Use categories that are also good keywords

• Keywords in url paths: domain.com/my-words

• Dashes are best

• Next best is underscores

• No spaces is worst

• Think about the keywords that users will type. Include them naturally in your posts

• ALT tags are handy (3-4 relevant words)

• Don’t forget image search, videos, etc.

SEO tips: Usability

• Make sure your site is crawlable

• Make your post creation dates easy to find

• Check your blog on a cell phone/iPhone

• He recommends full-text RSS feeds to get loyal users. Partial feeds get more page views, but not as much love.
  Your blog should do standard pings

SEO tips: moving to a new webhost

How to switch from one IP address to another

(Optional) Reduce your DNS time-to-live
Back up your site. Bring it up on new IP
Watch Googlebot & user traffic until they fetch the site from the new IP address
Take down the old site

SEO tips: moving to a new domain

• Standard advice: Use a 301 (permanent) redirect

• Even better: pick one subdirectory and move it first

• If the traffic stays roughly the same on the desired domain, go ahead and switch
  Otherwise, take some time to figure out why

• Standardize your backlinks (www vs. non-www)

• Write to everyone; ask them to update their links

Then he goes on to give tips on how to get your site popular.  To read his post and download the full presentation go here.

Google has today joined the Open Invention Network (OIN),  a patent-sharing organization founded to create a legally protected environment for anyone who works with Linux.

The basic concept behind OIN is that all licensees as well as participants such as IBM, Oracle, NEC and Sony, agree to cross-license their Linux-based patents to the other licensees free of charge.

Its worth a mention that Google’s technology background is Linux-based.  In fact, the servers used to power the internet giant’s search results are Linux-based servers.

This move re-enforces Google’s support for open-source software and reminds us all why we all fell in love with Google in the first place.
 

Not sure what to write about?  Here are a few links that will help you select topics that can potentially drive bucket loads of traffic to your site:

Be it Brittney Spears, or Justin Timberlake, the above tools will help you find out which topics are the flavour of the month, and therefore which keywords -if properly optimised-could potentially drive the most traffic to your site. 

Enjoy the traffic!

A few months ago I wrote about building my very own Google using the open source software that is Nutch. 

I actually did it but had to remove it from my server because the crawling sessions occupied too much space and resources on my server and caused it to crash a few times. This is one of the main obstacles facing anyone trying to compete with Google…computer power. 

Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikipedia has found another way to compete.  Jimmy (aka Jimbo) is also utilising open source software to challenge the search giant but he plans to add a couple of new ingredients to the formula to make it work. 

To challenge Google, Jimbo plans to utilise human editors from all around the world coupled with the computing power of thousands of idle computers to overcome the barriers to entry that Google has created over the years.

Basically, Jimbo plans to add the human touch to the traditional search engine algorithem and utilise computer down time from thousands of computers to crawl and index the web, this concept was tested in the past through a project called Grub.  Grub never saw the light of day, but is now getting a second chance after it was recently bought by Jimbo to incorporate into Wikia.

Can Jimbo challenge Google?  Why not,  if anyone is qualified, Jimbo is, after all, he did manage (with the help of Google) to create the largest online encyclopedia to rival giants like Brittanica and Encarta. 

Also…who would have ever though Google could challenge Alta Vista way back then but they did and they did it with new concepts and ideas set to revolutionise how search works and this is exactly what Jimbo is attempting to do.

Good luck to you Jimbo!