Alt Tag

putting a description in the Alt Tag does this make a difference in the rankings...i'm new to this SEO and want to learn how to get my site ranked higher www.247spares.co.uk

Yes it reads alt tags.

Still now sure however if the image needs to be linked.

I've heard it does, but I've also heard it doesn't.

It appears as though the alt text is only of value if the image is a link. I guess the idea behind this is that it's being used as a substitute for anchor text!

Yes you are right there Darrin. It is like the anchor text but I think it's not as powerful as the standard link text.

As far as I have seen from some of my results it also considered in the keyword density even if the image isn't a link. The problem is most of the people abuse it with keyword stuffing and loose some points, so beware on that.

Anyway a little bit plus there a little bit plus here if it helps the SEO and the visitors why not use it? ;)

I just link all images to an anchor...

Makes it easier, and if it needs to be linked. Then I win.

Thank you guys for taking the time and trouble to reply to my question, i find this forum a wealth of vital information, please keep up the good work, if anyone has abit of time can you check that i have added the alt tag correctly i have only done the index page www.247spares.co.uk

Definitely needs to be linked, otherwise Google won't find it ...
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22image+below+cannot+be+displayed%22

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22image+below+cannot+be+displayed%22+passes

Gringo.

Ok...going by the general concencus the alt tag should be used whenever you have a image that links over, and i have done this, but the second important question is can you over do the alt tag thing. I have quite alot of images on my index page and the rest of the site and i have used the keyword "car parts" and "used car parts" on the index page using the alt tag with these keyword will i be penailised for over doing it ?
www.247spares.co.uk

To expand -- theme it. Google reads and weighs text in the vicinity of the anchor - so if image link is in a table use title attribute.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="766" title="eMarketing">
<tr>
<td width="160" valign="middle" align="center" title="eMarketing" height="25"><a href="index.html" title="eMarketing><img src="image.gif" height="25" width="160" border="0" alt="eMarketing"></a></td></tr>

Image map same thing, CSS and div same thing, etc.

As far as non-linked images -- yes - it is good to call the image what it represents but no weight is apply (at least in Google).

<td align="left" valign="top" rowspan="2"><img src="imagesnew/flag2.jpg"Alt="car parts uk"></td>

is this the way i did it...anyone have any other recomendations as how to optimise it better

Not really - if not linked. Note: "flag2.jpg" by the file name does not sound like the image is about "car parts uk".

As no weight will come from this the alt"" should precisely represent what is depicted in the image. Therefore if (for example) the image depicts a flag of UK the "alt="UK flag".

ok i will make the ammendments ...thats for the advice

One thing others haven't mentioned is that the alt tag isn't only important for search engines, and that was never its original purpose. Its there for people with images turned off or with visibility difficulties, also...

Aaron