Sneaky trick or valuable technique?

[Herbster]

Now this is interesting, for me anyway.

I was working on a site today and discovered these huge, long, keyword packed alt tags - but when I moved my mouse over the graphics on the site I didn't see them.

Images have alt="" and then alt="tons of keywords".

So, the visitor doesn't see the alt tag, but the search engines do?

This is cute. But then I'm easily amused.

Is this a cheat or something worth doing?

[aspen]

Like anywhere else stuffing keywords into alt tags can raise red flags. More likely though is that they will just be ignored if they are beyond a certain length.

[Steelsun]

care to give us a link to the site? I'd like to see this.

And you do mean that each image has 2 alt attribs, right? the first "", the second "keyword-stuffed"?

[dragonhawk]

I've seen tons of sites like this. Especially with those dodgy businesses who want to rank near the top of search engines

I was thinking about doing this, but then I don't want to risk being banned from the search engines...

[Herbster]

Steelsun -

I'm not working directly for the client. I'm doing some work for their host. I don't feel comfortable posting the link - especially if this is a "dodgy" practice, LOL.

But here's an example.

<img src="Glass.jpg" width="468" height="60" alt="" border="0" alt="glass, auto glass, stone chip repairs, glass installation, windshield replacements, thermo pane replacement, commercial door glass, patio doors, mirrors, tabletops, window glass, screens repaired, storefronts, thermopane, Plate Glass Installed, auto glass, glass, windshield, star, bullseye, glass repair, crack, scratch, mobile, glass repair, windshield, repair, rock, chip, stone, windshield, glass repair">

[Steelsun]

Okay, I see.
Thanks.

Not sure I'd try doing that, as my theory is that when search engines look for spamming signs, they probably do a search for "alt=" then compare what comes after it. If they do it that way, I think they would see both Alts and penalize for it. If they don't see both Alts, then the second one is in fact useless, isn't it?

[Archbob]

I think for google the actual text on the page is what google really pays attention to. I think the alt tags will be ignored.

[Lister14]

sorry, i'm really new around here, but do you guys think that inserting those key words might make a search engine get more hits for the site containing those pics?