Alt tags are important for both web accessibility and SEO. They provide descriptive text for images, aiding visually impaired users and ensuring compliance with standards like WCAG. Alt tags also help search engines interpret your content, boosting rankings and driving more traffic.
How alt tag works
Alt tags, or alternative tags, are descriptive text added to the HTML code of an image. If you've ever seen text appear when an image fails to load on a website, that’s the alt tag at work.
Why alt tags matter for SEO
Boost search engine rankings
Search engines can’t visually analyze images, but they can interpret context through alt text. Including descriptive and relevant alt text helps search engines understand your content, improving your rankings.
Google even uses alt text to decide if an image is relevant enough to show in search results, driving more traffic to your site.
Optimizing for visual search
As Google’s visual search capabilities evolve, more users are relying on images to find information. Alt text gives you an edge in appearing in these image-focused results, ensuring you stay competitive in the search landscape.
Improving On-Page SEO
Alt text contributes to your page's overall relevance. When used correctly, it supports your keywords without overloading your text, helping you rank higher for your target words.
How to write alt text that works
Crafting alt text might sound straightforward, but it takes some finesse to do it well. Here are the best practices:
Use keywords wisely
Incorporate keywords naturally into your alt text, but avoid overloading it with unnecessary repetition and keyword spam since that might hurt your ranking.
Bad example: “Restaurant food menu restaurant food delicious food”
Good example: “Close-up of a gourmet pizza with fresh basil and mozzarella at an Italian restaurant”
Be consise
Screen readers and search engines usually stop reading alt text after 125 characters per image, so keep it concise and descriptive.
Skip the obvious
There’s no need to state that your image is an image, it’s implied. Instead, focus on describing the image and, if possible, include relevant keywords.
Bad | This is an image of a dog |
Better | Dog playing outside |
Best | Poodle puppy playing with a toy on a sunny day |
If you think it's still unclear, imagine how you would describe what you're seeing over the phone to a friend.
Advanced tips for image optimization
To get the most out of your images, pair great alt text with these additional SEO strategies:
Optimize file names
Rename your image files with descriptive, keyword-rich names. For example:
Bad: IMG12345.jpg
Good: modern-office-brainstorming.jpg
Compress images without losing quality
Smaller file sizes mean faster website load times, which is another ranking factor for SEO. There are great online tools to help you out with this. Tools I regularly use.
Think mobile-first
On phones, alt text becomes even more critical. This since an image failing to load is more likely to happen on a phone.
Final thoughts
Alt tags aren’t just an accessibility tool, they’re essential for improving your SEO. By crafting short, descriptive alt text to your images and strategically adding relevant keywords, you’re already setting your website up for success.
To maximize the impact, combine optimized alt tags with other image strategies, like compressing your images. Each small effort adds up, helping your site rank higher and deliver a better experience for all users.
Remember, in the world of SEO, every little detail counts. Alt tags might be small but their impact is huge.
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