Cross Your T's and Dot Your I's: completing an image's alt and title info.

Without naming names, I surprised how many food blogs have incomplete image information within their code.

I'm not talking about the over-flogged need to have width and height dimensions specified, but instead the need to have the alt and title information for an image complete.

What's the difference between alt and title for an image?

Not much. The difference comes down to browser interpretation. Some are blind to titles, yet others are not. Filling them both out means your information will be picked up and displayed regardless.

Why bother filing out this info?

• Mouse-over: hover your mouse over a photo. See the "pop up" that comes up on your screen? Those words are from your alt / title information for an image.



• Better search results, aka Google Google Google: taging your image with information that describes its content gives you much better ranking in search results.
  
  Google search and Google image search are my site's #1 and #2 traffic referral, largely because I tag my information (post titles, using headings, and filing out my image data) appropriately.



• Screen Readers for the Blind: I kid you not. I have received fan mail from visually impaired readers of my site thanking me for my clean code. Clean code means that their screen readers can make sense of what you are throwing up on a blog.
  
  My true motivation beyond Google to cross my t's and dot my I's is due to my screen reader audience. I want them to know what the images on a post are. Don't they deserve to be let in on the fun too?
  
  And yes, blind people cook. My visually impaired friend Randall would smack you upside the head with his frying pan (or his cane)if you were convinced otherwise. Besides, their sense of taste is probably more developed than ours anyway.



• The icing on the cake / extra credit answer: Its all about context. Give me more of the story of your photo. This affords you another opportunity to give more information to your viewers.
  
  For example, my whisk image alt / title info tells you a bit more about the whisk image I included.
  
  Same with my coconut pie post. My alt / title info tells you that there is more to the image than meets the eye- hidden raspberries and chocolate.

If filing out this information seems fiddly at first, I assure you it becomes second nature over time. Having this information filled out for an image also says a little something extra about you. I'll leave the deciphering of that as an exercise for the reader. Try it out for yourself.

This Post was written by McAuliflower from Brownie Points Blog.