Alt Text

What is Alt Text?

Alt text serves a dual purpose in the SEO industry. First, it makes your website more accessible to visually impaired users by providing a textual description of images, which screen readers can read aloud. Second, search engines use alt text to better understand the content of an image, thereby improving your website’s SEO ranking. By including relevant keywords in your alt text, you can help search engines index your images properly, making them more likely to appear in image search results. It's essential to keep alt text concise yet descriptive, avoiding keyword stuffing that could be considered spammy behavior by search engines.

Alt text, or alternative text, is a brief description of an image used in HTML code to improve web accessibility and SEO.

Examples

A photo of a golden retriever playing fetch: 'Golden retriever dog playing fetch with a red ball in a park.' This alt text describes the main elements of the image while incorporating the keyword 'golden retriever.'

An image of a vegan salad: 'Bowl of fresh vegan salad with avocado, chickpeas, and mixed greens.' This alt text is specific and includes relevant keywords like 'vegan salad' and 'avocado.'

Additional Information

Alt text should be kept under 125 characters to ensure compatibility with most screen readers.

Avoid using phrases like 'image of' or 'picture of,' as screen readers already announce these.

References

Alt Text for SEO: How to Optimize Your Images | Ahrefs

Alt Text: What Is It & Why It Matters for Accessibility & SEO | Semrush

Alt Text: What It Is & How To Write It | Search Engine Journal