7

Is there any SEO reason to add title after alt attribute of image?

<img src="./cat.jpg" alt="Funny Cat" />

vs

<img src="./cat.jpg" alt="Funny Cat" title="Funny Cat" />

I know the title will be as tooltip for user, I'm just asking as SEO optimization tip.

I cant find any tip here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016?hl=en

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5 Answers 5

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8

There is no use of title for image in terms of SEO. It is only used for providing extra information for that image element.

You can increase the SEO by adding ALT tag to your Images.

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5

The image title does not have any effect on SEO but the image alt attribute has a potential SEO benefit.

Google’s article about images has a heading “Use descriptive alt text”. This is no coincidence because Google places a relatively high value on alt text to determine not only what is on the image but also how it relates to the surrounding text.

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3

When I experimented with Google Image search (many years ago now), I found that this markup is what caused Google to most associate the text with the image:

<div>
    <image src="./cat.jpg">
    Funny Cat
</div>

Putting text inside a container div with the image was more effective than either the alt attribute, the title attribute, or the combination of the two.

For image SEO, it doesn't hurt to duplicate the text into the alt and/or title but it doesn't help rankings.

<div>
    <image src="./cat.jpg" alt="Funny Cat" title="Funny Cat">
    Funny Cat
</div>

However, putting the text both in the alt tag and next to the image duplicates the text and hurts usability when the image doesn't show up.

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2
  • 2
    I'd think using <figure><img /><figcaption><figcaption></figure> would provide a much stronger association than using <div>.
    – Ray Butterworth
    Commented Oct 12, 2019 at 13:42
  • @RayButterworth It might, but I haven't tested it. I know that a <div> works fine.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Oct 12, 2019 at 14:48
2

Alt attribute

alt must be present on all images, even if it can remain empty (for purely decorative images). It is used to provide the same information as the image (usually the text it carries) in the code of the page. The purpose of this information report is that it remains available when the image can not be loaded (because of a server overload or a connection problem ...) or that it can not be view (by a search engine robot or a screen reader user ...).

The title attribute

title, meanwhile, can be used on the links, to provide information necessary for the good navigation of the visitor and additional to the title of the link. It is an optional attribute, and very rarely necessary. A title with the identical title of the link is totally useless and redundant. It should not be used on images (except extremely specific cases).

<a href="index.htm" title="Retour à l'accueil">
   <img src="accueil.gif" alt="Accueil">
</a>
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1

There is no official announcement about image's title being a ranking factor despite that in Google's image best practices they encourage to use it.

Google extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles. Wherever possible, make sure images are placed near relevant text and on pages that are relevant to the image subject matter.

Anyway, optimizing your alt attribute, file name and placing an image between relevant content are the only official recommendations.

John Mueller also confirmed the relevance of alt attribute through Twitter without mention the title.

enter image description here

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