Other Terms
Alt Text
Table Of Contents
What is Alt Text?
Alt text (aka “alternative text”) is the text users see in place of an image in case the image fails to load or is inaccessible for any other reason. It’s a necessary feature for visually impaired people, and also — the way for search engine crawlers to check the relevance of the image.
Alt Text in Details
Alt text, short for “alternative text”, is crucial for web accessibility and search engine optimization. In short, it provides a text alternative to images. The alt attribute is added to an image tag in HTML, so it should accurately describe the image content and function.
When search engine crawlers index a website, they can’t “see” images, so they rely on the alt text to understand the image content. This helps the crawlers associate pictures with keywords and concepts, potentially increasing a page’s search visibility.
For SEO, alt text improves the relevance of a page to its target keywords and can contribute to a page’s ranking in search results. Properly formulated alt text should be concise and descriptive, avoiding keyword stuffing, which can lead to a negative user experience and potentially harm search rankings.
When search engine crawlers index a website, they can’t “see” images, so they rely on the alt text to understand the image content. This helps the crawlers associate pictures with keywords and concepts, potentially increasing a page’s search visibility.
For SEO, alt text improves the relevance of a page to its target keywords and can contribute to a page’s ranking in search results. Properly formulated alt text should be concise and descriptive, avoiding keyword stuffing, which can lead to a negative user experience and potentially harm search rankings.
How to Write a Good Alt Text
It’s not enough to just describe the image in free form. There’s a set of rules you need to follow to write a good alt text:
- Be specific and clearly describe the image and its context;
- Keep it short, no more than 125 characters, so readers can easily understand the content;
- Include relevant keywords that align with your content, but don’t overdo it;
- Skip phrases like “image of” or “graphic of”, because screen readers and crawlers already know that they’re “looking” at an image element.
Don’t forget about decorative images. If an image is purely decorative and adds no informational value, it’s best to use an empty alt attribute (alt=””) so screen readers skip over it.