One of the purposes of the alt attribute is to provide alternate text that can be shown when an image cannot be displayed, either because it is missing or broken, or because the user has disabled images in their (graphical) web browser.

Most graphical web browsers do display alt text in place of missing images, but there is one notable exception: Safari and most other WebKit-based browsers (iCab, Shiira, Chrome). In those browsers, all you get when an image is missing is either a small blue icon with a question mark in it or a broken image icon.

Beside the decision to display a question mark instead of the more helpful alt text, there are two things that I find particularly odd:

1. OmniWeb, which is WebKit-based, does display alt text for missing images. I guess The Omni Group have added support for this on top of WebKit.
2. For images that do not have dimensions specified in HTML or CSS, the size of the placeholder is affected by the length of the alt text, even though it is not displayed.

It seems that since it affects the size of the placeholder WebKit is aware of the alt text, but does not display it. I can’t think of any reason not to display alt text for missing images, so I think this should be changed to match the behaviour of other browsers.

by Ross Dunn

Over the past 12 years consulting on web marketing, I have answered countless questions but one question I receive often stands out from all; how to remove a Google penalty. The following is an example of a question I received in the past from a person named Patrick:

PLEASE HELP! For the last 8 years we were #1 for a ton of search terms but then my site got penalized by Google because we had overused some keywords. We fixed the issue months ago but my top rankings are all still over the place. Sometimes we get back into the top 10 and we all breathe a sigh of relief, then just a few hours later we are on page 5. What is going on and how can I correct this? We are beyond frustrated!

First, Some Research

In order to answer Patrick's question I needed to find out a couple of things about his website to make my answer more accurate:

• His site has excellent content right now and when I looked at past versions of the site I see the content was still great but definitely had keyword stuffing problems. Key finding: his site is really well done so I can see why it had top rankings before.
• I took a look at competitors found in the top 10 under several keyword searches that were obviously main targets for his website. After reviewing the backlinks for each competitor's sites I could see they were all very well entrenched but their content was not up to par with Patrick's site. I reviewed Patrick's backlinks and was surprised to find that he had very few. Key finding: his competitors have a lot of backlinks than Patrick's site does.
• An SEO Tool Note: I use Yahoo Site Explorer for cursory examination of backlinks for my clients and their competitors. For more in-depth research I use OptiLink by Winrose Software which provides excellent statistics that are very useful for analyzing the quality of backlinks among other things. Here are more recommended web marketing tools.
• I checked the server headers for their home page and other key pages to make sure nothing was outwardly wrong with their server configuration; everything was fine.
• I took some time to surf through Patrick's website and discovered that not all of the keyword stuffing had been removed. Key Finding: Google may still feel his site deserves a penalty because it is not 100% clean.

My Answer to Patrick:

First I will layout why it seems your site did so well to begin with. Your website has very few backlinks in comparison to your competitors who have significantly more. So, as near as I can tell your top rankings were so high because you had built an awesome reputation with Google by providing unparalleled content; I can't find a single competitor that can match the quality of your content. For a long time you managed to stay at the top of your marketplace by continuing to provide great content. Unfortunately, you were over-optimizing the content by adding too many incidences of the same keywords (keyword stuffing) and Google took a disliking to it.

So why is it so hard to regain your ranking stability? Your site lost the glue that kept it competitive when Google penalized it. The glue, in this case, was your site's reputation that was created based on your content which lost its stickiness due to Google's penalty for the keyword stuffing. Without your content advantage your competitors have leaped ahead of you because they have far more links than you have and no ranking penalties (that we know of). Without links and with the Google penalty applied to your site your content hasn't the power it had before so your rankings will fluctuate for an indeterminate amount of time; there is no sure time limit on a Google penalty.

My Recommendation for Removing the Google Penalty

1. Remove all of the keyword stuffing on your website. I know it is a large site and this is no small feat but it needs to be done. With your site cleaned and nothing remaining but quality content there will at least be an end in sight to the Google penalty and your site will also benefit from being more readable and usable to a visitor.
2. Begin an ongoing link building campaign now - there is no time to delay. Links are another path to building credibility for your website which it sorely needs right now. There is also a good chance that high quality incoming links will act as additional entry points to your website for Google to index your newly revised site and reconsider the penalty.
3. Review Google Webmaster Tools and attend to any errors/alerts/warnings that Google has provided. Also make sure to submit a fresh sitemap once the site is cleaned so that Google takes notice of any content that may have gone unnoticed and/or new content.
4. Freshen content on key parts of your website with rewrites or additional articles. This will provide positive activity that Google will not deny adds value to its index.
5. Bolster your Pay Per Click campaigns so they can bear some of the burden during this dry spell of low organic rankings.
6. Be patient. If you do everything I have noted above you are in a great position to succeed and your site will be stronger than ever before.

By applying these recommendations you will very likely discover that the Google Penalty was more a blessing than a curse because your site will come out stronger than ever before.

by Jeff Howard

Google is paving the way for small business owners to take a proactive approach toward online marketing. For lots of folks seeking better local exposure claiming their business at the Google Local Business Center is their first step into the realm of search marketing. But, it's not always smooth sailing. The maps system has bugs, limitations, and can sometimes misrepresent a business causing a steady decline in leads. Here are 6 common mishaps straight from the Google Maps help forum.

Problem: Unable to Verify By Phone
Answer: For security reasons some listings need to be verified by post card, it's probably best to verify your listing first by mail if you have time. For those hard pressed for time if the phone number area code is in the same area as the business, phone verification should go smoothly.
Forum Thread

Problem: Listing Flagged
Answer: This can happen if guidelines are not followed correctly, and from reading the forums it will sometimes happens even if you're following the guidelines. To remedy, post something to the LBC Maps forum and make sure it includes the word "Flagged." Generally a Google employee will look at this and get back to you. Here are two examples of that happening.
Forum Thread, Forum Thread

Problem: Listing Not Showing Up
Answer: Once a listing is claimed you will be able to view it via a link inside the Local Business Center. It's a common complaint across the forums that listings do not show up for specific keyword searches. For example, someone claims a listing, populates info and then is upset they are unable to find it for a related keyword search. This doesn't mean that your listing is inactive. It only means it is not being shown for that particular search term. The best remedy is to make sure that your business is listed under the correct category. If not Google will refer you to this page for tips on map optimization
Forum Thread

Problem: Multiple Listings or Duplicate Listings
Answer: Claim both of the listings, then make sure each are absolutely identical. That includes address, categories, titles, descriptions, everything. Google should then catch this and update it. Sometimes it can happen quickly, other times not so much. If nothing changes in two weeks notify Google via their forum and it is likely they will resolve the issue.
Forum Thread

Problem: Removing A Negative Review
Answer: A negative review can certainly be detrimental. But, Google isn't going to remove that review just upon your request. It is Google's incentive to provide searches with the most information possible about your business. The best defense against negative reviews is to encourage your customers to leave positive reviews. Like they say, the best defense is a good offense.
Forum Thread, Forum Thread

Problem: Your Company Shares an Office Building & The Address Is Used By Another Company
Answer: You're screwed, no kidding.
Forum Thread

Conclusion: During the time I spent cruising the forums I found a lot of unanswered questions, but having said that, many of the unanswered questions are from folks that aren't taking the time to read the guidelines and support material provided by Google. Google provides this here , they also have a handy video about claiming your business . A final recommendation would be to use the website www.getlisted.org which is a basic tool for checking the status of your map listing.

Whenever you specify a background image in your CSS, consider what happens if the image is missing. If there is text on top of the image, is it still readable? If not, specify a colour for the browser to use instead of the image so the text becomes readable again.

Why would an image be missing? A few possibilities are broken images, network problems, and user settings.

Here’s what the CSS could look like (long-hand used for clarity):

1. body {
2. color:#000;
3. background-color:#fff;
4. }
5. #my-element {
6. color:#fff; /* white */
7. background-image:url(my-blue-image.png);
8. background-color:#2f4b8e; /* blue */
9. }

This post is a Quick Tip. Background info is available in Quick Tips for web developers and web designers.