You will learn about alternative text (alt text) in this article, including what it is, why it’s crucial for SEO, how to utilize it properly, and more.
This is a really useful and concise tutorial that offers pointers and recommendations you can apply right away to enhance the accessibility and image SEO of your website.
What is Alt Text?
Alt text (or alternative text), often known as the alt attribute or the alt tag (which is incorrect technically because it is not a tag), is simply text that is included in the HTML code to describe the image.
Use of Alt Text
Alt text’s first function was to merely describe an image that couldn’t be loaded.
It is used to assist you to understand the content of an image that was too large to load in your browser many years ago when the internet was much slower.
Now, images rarely fail to load, but if they do, the alt text will appear in their place.
Now, both screen reader users and search engine bots are beginning to use this:
- People with disabilities who use screen readers, for example, can understand more about an image’s content because of alt text.
- Additionally, it helps in the content and context of the image for search engine bots.
Of course, it is frequently overused and, in some cases, even abused, just like every component of SEO.
Now, let’s examine the significance of alt text in more detail.
Importance of Alt Text
The internet and websites are mostly visual mediums. A website without graphics or other graphic components is difficult to discover. Because of this, alt text is important.
In order to make a picture accessible to a wider audience, including those with disabilities and search engine bots that are not yet intelligent enough to completely understand every image, its context, and its meaning, alt text helps convert the image’s content into words.
Importance of Alt Text for SEO
The on-page SEO optimization process includes alt text as a key component.
Your website has a better chance of ranking in Google image search, thanks to effective alt text optimization.
Yes, Google’s image search uses alt text as a ranking factor.
Google image search traffic may be quite important to the overall success of your website, depending on the niche and level of specificity of your website.
For example, when it comes to e-commerce websites, people frequently begin their search for products by entering a Google image search query rather than the product name into the usual Google search box.
If you fail to optimise the alt text for your product images, Google and other search engines may display fewer of them (or none at all).
If your images aren’t properly optimised, you risk losing a lot of prospective visitors and clients.
Importance of Alt Text for Accessibility
Accessibility is a factor that should be prioritised above visibility in Google picture searches.
Thankfully, accessibility has gained greater attention and importance in recent years (i.e., making the web accessible to everyone, including those with impairments or/and using screen readers).
Suppose the alt text of your images truly describes what they are instead of, say, cramming them with keywords. In that scenario, you are assisting those who are unable to view this image in understanding it and the full website’s information.
Common Alt Text Mistakes
You can make mistakes other than stuffing the alt text with keywords.
Here are a few examples of typical alt text mistakes:
- Either not using alt text at all or using empty alt text.
- Applying the same alt text to several photos.
- Using an extremely vague alt text that doesn’t truly explain the image.
- Automatically using the file name as the alt text, could provide really unpleasant alternative text.
Alt Text Writing Tips
Here are some suggestions for writing appropriate alt text that truly serves its purpose:
- Avoid stuffing the alt text with keywords. Your website’s ranking for these packed keywords won’t be improved.
- Keep it brief but detailed when describing the vision. Aim to keep the text to one sentence.
- Include your target keywords in the image’s description while yet sounding genuine. Don’t use your target keyword if the image’s description already includes it.
- Avoid writing on images. HTML code should be used to add any text.
- Ensure that reading the image’s alt text alone allows you to understand its information. The greatest test to see if your alt text is appropriate is that one.
For more such tips, updates and learning resources, stay tuned to Insitebuild Blog.
