There is one question that I receive a lot related to Search Engine Optimization and images.
Do I need to include the Alt attribute or the title attribute?
Let me answer the question first and then explain my answer.
You need both.
The alt attribute and the title attribute make it easier for the user to find what they need. The alt attribute tells Google what the image is depicting. The more descriptive the alt attribute the more useful it is to Google when returning image search results.
The title that Google cares about the most is the name of the file. If there is no alt attribute and Google cannot use the text on the page to determine the subject of the image it relies on the file name to determine subject matter. So when you save your images give them meaning file names.
However that does not mean that you should not include a meaningful title attribute. The title attribute does can be extremely useful to your visitors. The title attribute is displayed when the user hovers over an image.
While I am talking about benefits to your visitors let me also mention that the alt tag is also used by screen readers. Using the alt tag makes your website accessible to more people and helps your website conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Now that I have told you why you should use the alt attribute and the title attribute let me show you have to set the alt attribute and the title attribute.
You can set the alt attribute and title attribute when you add an image to the WordPress Media library. Simple add a meaningful title and descriptive alternate text. Then you can just save your image and continue with your post as you would normally.
I will end by telling you that if you have a lot of images on your website that don’t have an alt attribute or a meaningful title you don’t have to go and fix each image individually. You can install a WordPress plug-in called SEO Friendly Images. You enter if you want your attribute to be the title of the image, the name of the file, the category of the post, or the tags related to the post. You can then determine if you want to override the ALT attribute and/or Title attribute supplied by WordPress. Update your options and instantly you have SEO friendly images.