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Images are essential in any modern user’s experience of the internet, and they have a profound impact on grabbing users’ attention and communicating meaning. However, one aspect that can potentially ruin your website’s accessibility as well as search engine performance is often neglected: alt text. This short string of text impacts how users and search engines interpret your content, especially those using assistive technologies. In this article, we’ll discuss the role of alt text as it pertains to SEO and accessibility, as well as how to optimize images for all visitors.
Alt text is an option within HTML that describes images for search engines or people who cannot view the image. They would see something like this simple code:
<img src=”your-image.jpg alt=”Descriptive text about your image”>
In the same way that putting a caption under an image may seem redundant, alt text accomplishes two things in the image tags field:
Both functions support the creation of a robust website that is market-friendly in any era.
285 million people around the globe suffer from visual impairments. Many resort to using screen readers to fetch information from the web. When a person with vision impairment comes to your site and has to deal with images, their screen reader tells them the described text, and this caption is the missing key part.
The absence of appropriate alt text linked to images may lead visually impaired users to miss important details that could be accessed through your image visuals. This is already an exclusionary experience that could be quite detrimental to a large portion of your audience. Furthermore, removing document captioning in various jurisdictions makes web accessibility more than a good practice; it’s a violation of the law.
Imagine a recipe post where you’d find step-by-step photographs accompanying the text. In the absence of suitable alt text, a person with visual impairment would not receive any guidance aside from ‘image’ bubbles appearing alongside their screen readers. With alt text such as “Diced onions being sautéed in olive oil until translucent,” they receive the same instructional benefit as others with screens.
One must not underestimate the relevance of alt text in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A website is mainly indexed by search engines on the basis of a “visual” look at the alt texts present, which is why the presence or absence of alt text will undoubtedly help or hurt a site’s SEO greatly.
Enhancing Image Rank: Images are ranked based on their relevance to a particular search. Alt text highly determines an image’s relevance. If an alt text is programmed well, images will show up on Google Image Search, therefore improving traffic to the website.
Improved Keyword Strategy: Related keywords are included in the alt text, which provides information to search engines regarding the content. This practice helps in better optimization strategy.
Better Understanding of the Context: Since search engines are given images and other vitals, having context is very important. An image placed without any words will not prove efficient. The lack of text depicting the image can decrease the effectiveness of overall text; this is proved by the significance score.
Keeping Users on the Site for Longer: Browsers provide services that range from displaying art and regions that are affected by alt text to where programs such as Connections sometimes tend to disable or fail to display images and tend to show pictures. For example, when a user becomes a visitor, it tends to allow them to remain active on a given platform.
Research done through Moz indicated that images programmed properly with relevant alt text will amount to around 12 percent of probable queries that need the mentioned website to be active. This is something as important as neglecting to tend to lose a lot, especially those demanding easy optimization.
Knowing how to use alt text for SEO and accessibility purposes is helpful. However, it does not tell the complete story on how to do them. Here are some additional practices to keep in mind:
Captions for images on sites should summarize the content or picture shown without cutting anything. They should be as accurate as possible. Descriptions should avoid vague phrases but include a wide range of details that put a picture into someone’s head so they can visualize it.
For example, instead of using alt=”product image,” be more descriptive: alt=”Red Nike running shoes with reflective side panels.”
Even though something is being explained, being succinct is vital. Screen readers usually stop reading alt text after around 125 characters, so try to give as much detail as possible in that character limit.
Too Long: alt= “The golden rays of the sun stretching over the ocean create a beautiful sight. The clouds have vibrant colors of orange and pink as the day comes to an end. The water is mirroring the magnificent colors of the twilight sky and captures the peaceful beauty of nature.”
Better: alt=”Golden sunset over calm ocean waters with orange and pink reflections”
While alt texts are an opportunity to improve SEO, keyword stuffing will always hurt your SEO and accessibility marketing goals. Make sure to include relevant keywords only when they fit naturally within your writing.
Keyword Stuffing: alt “best running shoes running shoes sale discount running shoes buy logo shoes online”
Natural Integration: alt “Nike Zoom Pegasus 38 women’s running shoes in teal”
Make sure not to start the alt text with phrases such as ”image of” or ”picture of.” The reason is because screen readers will already announce that it is an image.
Redundant: alt=”Image of a man working at a computer” \ “Man typing on laptop while sitting at wooden desk” provides better context.
For non-informative, decorative images, an empty alt attribute (alt=””) is preferable to omitting it. This indicates to screen readers that the image can be skipped rather than needing to discern its value.
To achieve the best results with text accessibility and search engine optimization, develop a systematic approach.
Use audits to find images with missing alt texts: Use Screaming Frog or Google’s Lighthouse to find images lacking alt texts.
Create a uniform policy for your content team. This provides consistency and better-structured alt texts.
Start with the images that are most important. These are the ones that directly give value or important information to the content.
Use NVDA or VoiceOver to navigate through your site. These methods help understand how alt texts are exposed to people with visual impairments. All texts should ideally be tested with screen readers.
Evaluate the performance of the images within search results. Analyze the results after the appropriate alt texts were added.
Image optimization goes beyond the use of alt text. For greater optimization effectiveness, be sure to consider:
Alt text provides a description of image content and at the same time enables search engines and people with disabilities to connect with the content within the picture. Thoughtful and meticulous phrasing of alt texts enables websites to better compete and makes them friendlier to users—a huge benefit and surprising hallmark in the online ecosystem.
This shows how the need for underscoring alt texts has equally been matched with the complexification of search engines. With the evolution of the internet, to be socially responsible shows there is serious focus on digital inclusivity by applying the right processes.
Next time you upload an image to your site, create some thoughtful alt text. Investing a bit more of your time can drastically improve how everyone interacts with your content.
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