"alt" attribute on images and "title" attribute on links required in HTML5?

Question

Me and other developers at our company are struggling with "title" and "alt" attributes. In the past, we added "title"-Tags to all links for SEO purposes (although some of them were annoing talking about usability) and "alt"-Tags on every image on the site, because HTML4 spec said so.

• Are "title" and "alt"-Tags still required?
• If they're not required, do they still have effects on SEO?

Answer 1

Check the HTML specification to see what is/isn’t required:

• a element: The (global) title attribute is not required.

• img element: The alt attribute is required in most cases (exceptions).

(Questions about the SEO effect are off-topic on Stack Overflow. They can be asked on Webmasters SE.)