Alternative text or commonly known as alt text is a brief description that explains an image on a website to search engines and users.
It provides context about the image, especially for visually impaired users who use screen readers, and for search engines like Google and Bing that cannot directly see images.
Optimizing alt text implementation is a crucial step in SEO, as it helps improve your site’s visibility in search results and enhances accessibility.
Here is a guide from GetFound for properly and effectively implementing alt text.
Create Clear and Relevant Descriptions for Each Image
The first step to implement alt text is to ensure that the descriptions used are clear and relevant to the image.
Alt text should briefly and directly describe the image’s content while remaining relevant to the page’s topic. Avoid simply adding keywords, as this can be seen as spammy by search engines like Google.
For example, if you have an image of black sunglasses on an e-commerce page, alt text such as “Black sunglasses with a minimalist design” is more effective than just writing “sunglasses.”
Tips for creating good descriptions:
- Focus on the primary information shown by the image.
- Avoid phrases like “image of” or “photo of,” as screen readers already understand it is an image.
- If the image contains important text, include that text in the alt text to ensure users receive the same information.
Insert Keywords Naturally
When you implement alt text, using keywords can improve the page’s relevance to specific search queries. However, it is essential to include keywords naturally and relevantly.
Overloading alt text with keywords, or keyword stuffing, not only harms SEO strategies but also makes descriptions unclear for users.
Customize Alt Text for Each Unique Image
Ensure that each image has unique alt text. Repeating the same description for multiple images reduces the effectiveness of alt text as additional information. If several images are similar, create variations in their alt text while maintaining the context of each image.
Focus on Accessibility and User Experience
One of the main functions when you implement alt text is to support accessibility for users relying on screen readers. Ensure that your alt text helps users understand the image’s context without seeing it. Effective alt text provides an equivalent experience for users with limited access.
Provide descriptions that include important information from the image without adding unnecessary details. If an image is purely decorative and does not convey essential information, you can leave the alt text blank.
Validate Alt Text with SEO and Accessibility Tools
After adding alt text, validate its effectiveness in supporting SEO and accessibility. Several tools can be used to check alt text implementation, including:
- Google Search Console: View image reports to ensure your images are indexed and understand how they contribute to site visibility.
- Web Accessibility Tools: Use tools that help you ensure images have alt text and detect other accessibility errors that need fixing.
- SEO Checkers: Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can provide additional insights into image performance in search results and whether your alt text aids your site’s ranking.
Also Read: Is SEO Really Dead or Still Important in 2024?
Optimize Image Size and Format
In addition to alt text, optimize image size and format to prevent slowing down the page loading time. Site speed is a critical factor in SEO, so ensure your images are optimized and do not negatively impact page performance.
Tips for optimizing images:
- Use lightweight formats like JPEG for photos and PNG for images with transparent backgrounds.
- Compress images to reduce file size without compromising quality.
Regularly Review Alt Text
SEO is an ever-evolving strategy, so it’s crucial to periodically review and implement alt text to ensure it remains relevant and meets the latest SEO standards. As search engine algorithms and user needs change, you may need to update alt text to maintain its effectiveness.
Ways to monitor and update alt text:
- Create a list or report of images on your site to check existing alt text.
- Test image performance in Google Images and Search Console to identify alt text that may need improvement.
- Revise alt text if new, more relevant keywords emerge, but always do so naturally and descriptively.
Follow Our Recommended Best Practices to Implement Alt Text! Call GetFound for More Details!
Optimizing alt text implementation is a simple yet highly beneficial step in enhancing your site’s accessibility and visibility in search engines.
By writing clear, relevant, and natural descriptions while incorporating keywords appropriately, you can maximize the impact of alt text on rankings and traffic. It’s important to implement alt text and ensure regular validation and testing to maintain your site’s relevance and accessibility for all users.
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