Alt Text Tags and indexing?

[webgeek]

I've got 2 questions that I haven't been able to find the answer for. 1.) I am trying to optimize my site for the search engines. Is there an easy way to assign an "alt text" tag to all of the images in my site. 2.) Do the descriptions in the ads help with search engine optimization?

[identity]

1. No. I assume you mean the photos and images within the ads. If you have the knowledge, then you could hack the code, but would probably need to do so in all the modules used on your site as well as some of the main files. This is one of the huge negatives to the Geo scripts from both an SE point of view as well as for accessibility. Hopefully this is being resolved. I don't believe it would be too difficult, but still fairly a extensive task, just not sure that it has been a high priority.

2. Yes, Maybe. The answer may change over time. With a new site and less traffic, the impact will probably be less. SE spiders will typical only read through so much of a page and take in a certain amount to index. This along with the number of pages spidered and indexed are all low for newer, less proven and less trafficked sites. Even as the site improves in popularity and ages, there may still be some limits based on how much a page they will spider. Unfortunately, unless you've made changes, the pages are fairly tables and nested tables intensive. This means that there is a lot of "junk" the SE's need to dig through before they even get to the description.

[geomodules]

I've got 2 questions that I haven't been able to find the answer for. 1.) I am trying to optimize my site for the search engines. Is there an easy way to assign an "alt text" tag to all of the images in my site. 2.) Do the descriptions in the ads help with search engine optimization?

See this module
http://www.geomodules.com/html/se_power.html

To edit the alt tag its a simple php edit. I can't remember right off the top of my head but it is the site_class.php file You simply find where the img displays and add the alt tag in. All images will have the same alt tag though. If you like we can do this for a small fee. It woul take 30 minutes to find and change. Locating it takes time.

[webgeek]

Thanks for the infomation. I've still got a lot to learn about search engine optimization. I may look to hire some help later on but initially I've got to try generating some revenue so that I can move forward on hiring help. Thanks again for the information!

Bill