Stream News & Views

28 May 2024
Today we're asking ChatGPT to help us with our title tag SEO
Whenever you search for something on Google, the results are displayed with a main title and a description below. In addition to standing out, the...
14 Dec 2023
TrailBoss website goes live
Trailboss is an established towbar brand in the Australian market with a reputation of delivering quality products for over 40 years. We were asked to...
16 Nov 2023
Dr John Flood Website
We replaced an ageing Wordpress site with one of our Footprint websites. Check it out.
14 Nov 2023
Parkside Towbars website goes to the next level with a carefully considered refresh
Parkside Towbars have always provided great service and professionalism to their local customers from their 3 stores in Perth, Western Australia. In...
08 Nov 2023
FLOWAMS - The all-new Association Management Software (AMS) by Stream Interactive
We've taken our ever reliable streamSWEET software and reconfigured it into FLOW AMS
06 Sep 2023
Should I consider a WAF (Web application firewall) as part of my website security?
A WAF, or Web Application Firewall, is a vital tool for safeguarding web applications (websites). Its primary function is to filter and monitor HTTP...
21 Aug 2023
10 essential benefits of a website re-skin
A website re-skin, also known as a website redesign or makeover, involves updating the visual elements and user interface of a website while keeping...
04 May 2023
Nonprofit Courses chooses PD able to track its Professional Development
Matt Hugg, President and Founder of Nonprofit Courses tells us how he tried unsuccessfully to find a suitable professional development system for his...
02 May 2023
Insurance Brokers Association of New Zealand (IBANZ) Website
When IBANZ made the shift to rebrand their organisation they also engaged us to refresh their existing membership website. Utilizing streamSWEET,...
01 May 2023
Our Tech 10 - May 2023
The latest goings-on in the tech world as seen by us. Some very cool 'James Bond' toys in this round... Enjoy!
30 Mar 2023
Xmas better late than never
At Stream we try to keep a good work-life balance but things got the better of us at the end of last year and continued into 2023.
16 Mar 2023
Is the hype around AI and ChatGPT really something worth looking into? We decided to find out!
We asked chatGPT to produce an AI generated presentation about one of our favourite topics: Why is Professional Development key to your business...
05 Dec 2022
Trojan E-commerce Website Upgrade
5 years ago Stream Interactive launched the Trojan website, moving the business into full online, e-commerce capability. ERP integration was also...
08 Sep 2022
Professional Development Tracker Software
In our opinion, this is one of the best Professional Development trackers in the world today.
04 Jul 2022
Should I make the switch to Google Analytics 4?
Oh heck Google will no longer be supporting Universal Analytics from 1 July 2023, instead you will now need to migrate over to their latest and...
20 Jun 2022
What are image 'alt' tags and how do they affect SEO?
Image Alt Text and SEO
30 Mar 2022
Should I create a custom 404 page for my website?
What is a 404 page anyway? A 404 page shows when someone gets lost on your website by using the wrong URL. This can happen for a variety of...
22 Nov 2021
Could Google be manipulating your webpage title tags?
In recent months Google has been rewriting Title tags in it’s SERPs at a rate of about 13%, (sometimes up to 20%).
19 Nov 2021
Our Tech 10
Something tech-focussed and fun to read during your tea or coffee break
18 Jun 2021
Can my newsletter look great on all devices & what about those pesky spam algorithms?
Email is still one of the most dependable direct marketing channels available. You've done all the hard work building up a reliable email database...

What are image 'alt' tags and how do they affect SEO?

20 Jun 2022

We love seeing our clients using their CMS tools to upload images to their websites; photos of their products, staff profiles, news, events, homepage hero slides, offices and branch photos, these enrich site pages and help to break up text laden content. An important and often overlooked aspect when loading an image to your site is to include ‘alt text’, also often referred to as ‘alt tag’, 'alt attribute',  ‘alternative text’ or ‘alt descriptions’. These little gems make a big difference to your search results, therefore they play a crucial part in your site’s SEO.


Google Images Tab

Images in Google search results improve SEO

Have you ever wondered how images magically end up in ‘Google Image’ search results? I’m talking about the grid of images you see when you click on the images tab at the top of the results page.


Google Search Grid

In the example above we Google-searched the term 'KIWI TV'. The 4th image in the top row is displaying the image that we included in our historic case study about Kiwi TV. The alt text that we supplied with the image was "KIWI TV - Australia".

Search engines crawl your site pages so that they can be indexed, they also index your images and look at image names as an important aspect of understanding what your page is about (in-page SEO). The best chance you have of getting shown in the grid of images is by adding ‘Alt text’ for every image that you upload.

Alt text was originally intended to help the visually impaired, so they boost your sites 'accessibility' strength as well, they also become very useful when images are broken or switched off.

When adding 'alt text' make sure that you don't just jam in a whole lot of keywords, instead, make sure that the image is described in a way that makes sense within the page. Doing this should give you a greater chance of being indexed by search engines.

How can I add 'alt text' to my images?

There are 3 ways of adding 'alt' text using streamSWEET CMS.

  1. Add your alt text in the form field provided when you are uploading your image.
  2. Add the alt text manually using the HTML editor during image upload.
  3. Edit the raw HTML source code
Option 1 - Form field method

When you are updating a page that uses one of our in-built apps (News, Gallery, Case Study, Shop product, etc), make sure that you fill in the form field labelled "Image Alt Text".

Alt Text Form Field
Option 2 - HMTL Editor method

In your CMS navigate to the page that you want to upload your image to. Using the HTML Editor, click on the image icon, this will allow you to find the image on your computer and place it in the directory that you want it to sit under.

To add the 'alt text', just right-click your image to bring up the Properties window. Click the 'Properties' link to reveal the 'alt text' field. Insert the text, click OK, and don't forget to save it by clicking the 'Update' button.


ToolTips Editor
 
Option 3 - For the advanced user

Click on the 'HTML' button at the bottom of the editor. This will give you  access to the raw HTML source code. Place the 'alt text', within the 'img' tag, then click the 'Update' button.

Edit HTML Source

Example:
<img alt="Engage Members" src="/ImagesCust/imagescont/CMS/icon_connect.svg" />


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