Especially in cases of common images, the alt text can increase your chances of ranking high for long tail keywords in Google image search. Don’t always use your main keywords but use semantically related keywords – Many times it’s difficult to have the main keyword in the alt text, a good alternative is to use related keywords. Read our article below for ranking tips and advice on good SEO It is added to the tag in the HTML of a page. Alt Text should contain text as pixels when that is the image, but otherwise describe the image’s function (email vs envelope for an icon) or form (a brief description that makes sense in the image… However, it's often forgotten or even disregarded by a lot of marketers and website owners. Alternative text is simply a piece of text that describes an image, link, or other piece of content. If an image has text in it, that text should be the alt text. Going forward you can use better filenames but you don’t have to go back and change the names of your existing images. Do you recommend going back and reloading each image with a new title? If your alt text is correct then you don’t have to worry too much about the image filenames. Here are a few examples of image alt tags: Meh Alt Text: . Even if you rank higher than them at the moment, their content could be much more appealing to individual users who prefer visual content over text. It also helps search engine crawlers properly index your images and improves your chances of gaining visibility for those images in search engine results. People have concerns that Google bot might not be able to read all images if they are not loaded from the beginning. Does it really affect your rankings and, if so, how? In case the image is used as a link, the alt text is used as the, The images should be included in pages with relevant text. How much will having a different title for the image and the article affect my SEO? Adding alt text to your images if the first rule of image SEO and it’s also a key principle of web accessibility.. So it helps you provide better web accessibility to visually-impaired users. A good monthly SEO report draws the line differentiating a good SEO consultant from a bad one. Moreover, 36% of respondents have also performed a visual search in the past. Try to get straight to the point and describe only the most prominent elements in the image if there are too many elements. Depending on the title, this may or may not be quite as helpful as it could be. Sure, it's an image of a football game, but there's a lot more going on here. Unlike alt text, the image title is not displayed when the image is missing or not loaded properly. Basically the screen reader will read what is being displayed on the screen. The reader will recite the text on a page, and when it reaches an image, it will recite the alt text as well. It can give web crawlers much needed information about your image. Image with an alt tag: If you’re using a modern CMS, it should be possible to add alt text without having to dig into the HTMLcode. Otherwise, you're giving your competitors more opportunity to get ahead of you in search engine rankings. It should be added to every image that conveys meaning in instructional and communications materials including Moodle sites, word processing documents, and slide presentations. In fact, an Intent Lab study found that 59% of respondents consider visual information more important than text. However, you may have come across people using the incorrect term "alt tags" as well. Alt text or alternative text is also known as "alt descriptions" or "alt attributes." A non-descriptive text may confuse the reader as well as search engines and our purpose to get traffic, to rank in the image searches will not fulfill. If an image is not displaying on the webpage for any reason, the alternative text will display there, it provides information to the Reader that at this place there was an image related to “Alternative Text”. It's a short HTML attribute that is a description of about 100 characters that you assign to the images on your web page to describe what the image is. Images that are links or buttons 2. You can add other words, but the alt text should say the same thing as the image. We touched on this with the football example above. In keeping with other Internet guidelines, the term " alt text" (in a code font) is used here to refer to the text supplied for the image alt parameter and which generates text for the HTML alt attribute; the term "alternative text" refers to the text equivalent for an image, regardless of where that text resides. Definition and Usage The required alt attribute specifies an alternate text for an image, if the image cannot be displayed. Repeat Text in the Image . This is the process of optimizing all your images so that search engines understand them (as well as to help people with accessibility issues understand what the images … ALT text is alternative text. For example, a logo for Acme Widgets that features the actual words should have alt text that includes those words. Alt texts are short descriptions that help describe an image, usually on web pages. So it ensures that every visitor can appreciate your content regardless of their visual ability. The alt text of an image is alternative information that is equally helpful for human visitors and search engine crawlers. The ALT text should simply repeat, word-for-word, the text contained within that image. Alternative text, or “alt text” describes the content of images, graphs and charts. Being at the top requires leveraging every possible source of traffic, which means you can't disregard traffic coming from image search results. 3. Adding optimized alt text to your images makes your blog more accessible for the visually impaired and also gives your blog an SEO boost. This could be a huge missed opportunity because images take up a prominent position in some search engine results, as you can see in the screenshot below. The alt text is an attribute added to an image’s HTML that describes what appears in the image. I hate spam as much as you do! Having alt text that reads “bath and candle” isn’t useful for visually-impaired readers because it’s information they don’t need to know. Ugly Alt Text: , Beyond Ugly Alt Text: , Please stay away from using these examples. Your primary keyword is "online shopping safety" but you're also targeting keyword variations like "shopping securely online" and "safety while shopping online. Think about like this:  if you were to close your eyes and have someone read the alt text to you, wouldn't you want it to be as accurate as possible? This is an in-depth article about the alternative text attribute: from what is an alternative text to how to perfectly write them.. Alt text or alternative text is a short "hidden" description that you can add to your picture block and gallery block images. This is a must read for image optimization. The purpose of ALT text is to provide Google with additional information about your image for the visually impaired who are using screen readers. Alternative text (alt text) is descriptive text which conveys the meaning and context of a visual item in a digital setting, such as on an app or web page. There are millions of people searching for images on Google and If you want your images to rank high, you need to: Lazy loading is a way to improve the loading speed of a page by loading images only when they are in the user’s viewport. For any image that is going to be displayed … Ideally, your alt text for images should both contain a relevant target keyword and a clear description of the image. Alex Chris - Digital Marketing Consultant and author. The alt text field could say "Photo showing a yellow bike" so that the blind could have an idea of it. Your email address will not be published. Alt text for images is vital to successfully optimize every aspect of your page content for search engines. While it may be an extra step, styling alt text can keep email design consistent and help get your message across to subscribers with blocked images. Alt-text is often thought of as just an accessibility requirement, but beyond being read by screen readers to provide information on the meaning and content of a graphic image, it serves several other important functions. At the core, your alt text for images should still be able to describe the image content even if you're using keywords to optimize it. Images which contain important text 3. Like alt text, it lets users and search engines know what’s in the picture. It is an attribute you can (and REALLY SHOULD) apply to any image on your website. I’ve mentioned above that you should use your keywords without crossing the line and start doing keyword stuffing. Alt text is useful when an image link is not available because of a broken or changed URL or some other issue. In simple words, one major reason for using alt text is to define an image to search engine crawlers. 125 characters) but descriptive. They make a page easier to read, more visually attractive and they help in presenting a topic better. Unlike the title of the image, the alt text describes the image to search engines and human visitors who can’t see it. DOCX documents. Alt text, or alternative text, is a short description of an image in your campaign that displays when subscribers are unable to access your images. Although it's not always visible to regular visitors, alt text for images helps search engine crawlers and screen reading tools to understand the appearance and function of your images. Repeat Text in the Image . However, you shouldn't use this as an opportunity to stuff your alt text with keywords. Having a good alt attribute to all your images improves the accessibility of a site and also helps SEO both for image search and web search. Alt text best practices: Eventually, image alt text should be distinct yet in addition descriptive of the point of the webpage. These are: 1. What is Alt Text for Images and Why Is It Important for SEO? This includes screen readers Be specific when you describing the image. Image ALT text or (alternative text) helps your products show up in Google search results. So if you fail to use alt text for images on your site, your competitors may have leverage over you and get more visibility in relevant search results. It's used by website visitors that can't see the actual image, such as search engines and visually impaired users who may be using screen reader software. The alt text only appears in the source code of your website, as a line of HTML code also known as the alt attribute. So you're pretty much done with your on-page optimization efforts, right? Alt text, short for alternative text, is a small piece of text intended to describe an image, photograph, chart or any other picture on a website. You should also avoid adding phrases like "image of" or "picture of" in your alt text for images because it's already assumed that you're referring to an image. Another way that alt text helps SEO is when it comes to ranking images in Google’s Image Search. So your alt text could be something like "woman using a laptop and holding credit card while shopping securely online.". However, you may have come across people using the incorrect term "alt tags" as well. Instead, it is displayed when the user hovers their mouse over the image. Alt Text (also known as alternative text or alt attribute) is Good Alt Text: . The main reason for having an alt text in the first place is to have a textual description of an image. That's what's going to happen if you don't use alt text for images to optimize your on-page content. The first "ugly" example doesn't contain any alt text at all and the second example demonstrates keyword stuffing. Image alternative text is that text that displays in place of an empty image. Take a look at the following screenshot, for instance. But not all links are text; some are images. Google uses alt text in the same way that the visually impaired use them — as a way to comprehend images because the algorithm cannot see nor cognitively understand images. Add the alt text by editing the HTML Code. However, the image that's featured along with it is from a completely different site. This is the fourth in an eight-part article series. The process is different depending on if your document is in DOCX or the older DOC format. At the same time, the image alt text is the most critical factor for ranking your images high on Google image search but it can also help your pages rank higher in Google web search. I changed the keywords for several of my articles on my site. When I save the images to my library on WordPress, I type in the keyword for the post with hyphens between each word. 2. It would be better to have the screen reader ignore it completely. In addition, alt text for images shows up in place of an image file that fails to load. It allows screen reading software (like Chrome Vox or Fire Vox) to describe the image to the blind person who is visiting your site. Use an alt text on all your images to help visually impaired users navigate your site better. Note: If your "Alt Text" is not displaying, then the length of your "Alt Text" may be too long. Let's say you're using the following image in an article about online shopping safety and you're targeting multiple keywords. This description provides visitors with a complete picture of your page content. This will be helpful for both humans and search engines alike. It's a short HTML attribute that is a description of about 100 characters that you assign to the images on your web page to describe what the image is. On the surface, it’s a simple concept to learn and is usually straightforward to implement. Wondering how alt text on images can improve your search engine optimisation. Connect with him on Twitter. Alt text helps them consider what’s in the image and how it relates to the text around it. What about renaming the image with the keyword. Images need alternative text (alt text) – this is often one of the first things designers and developers learn about accessibility. For example, the alt text for the following image could be something like "protestor at Anonymous protest wearing Anonymous mask and holding a sign that says 'wake up.". Applying an alt attribute on an image helps Google understand what an image is about to serve it in image results. Use both the picture’s subject and setting to direct you. In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about image alt text. This is a good technique but there are doubts in the SEO community whether this is good for SEO or not. To take advantage of this for SEO purposes, make sure that your ALT text includes the SEO keywords (or closely related keywords), you want a page to rank for BUT without doing keyword stuffing. You don't necessarily need to include a description for the other elements like the people in the background, the building, or the traffic lights. So make it standard practice to write alt text for images whenever you're uploading an image to your site. Of course, there are some types of images that are always informative, and therefore always need alt text. We recommend checking out this tutorial on how to master styled alt text in email. Google uses alt text in the same way that the visually impaired use them — as a way to comprehend images because the algorithm cannot see nor cognitively understand images. The alt text value is shown in the place of the image when the image cannot be loaded (in case users have low bandwidth connections), The alt text improves the accessibility of a page. For example, in WordPress, there’s a field for alt text when adding an image t… See the examples below on how to write good alt text. If that happens, the alt text is shown inside the image boundaries. A way to minimize this risk is by using an alt text for all your images. The alt text only appears in the source code of your website, as a line of HTML code also known as the alt attribute. This helps visitors who can’t see the image and search engine bots to understand what an image is about. For example if you have a photo showing a bike. The goal is to ensure that people can immediately understand what the image is even if they can't see it. Put simply, 'Alt Text' means 'Alternative text for images'. When you add an image element to your HTML, you can specify the alt text value by adding the [ALT=” value goes here”] within the tag. But search engine bots can crawl the text content easily but the media content like images are not easy for search engines to crawl and index in the database. STEP 4: ALT-TEXT. You've strategically optimized the text with the right keywords that you have chosen after careful consideration. But what is its use in SEO? In fact, Google can rank a webpage in the Search Results based on the value of the ALT TEXT. Short for “alternative text”, the image alt text attribute is used in HTML to describe an image’s content and function. Google bot can read the value of the alt text, even if the images are not fully loaded. There’s all sorts of … So what is alt text for images? . This means that without alt text for images, search engines wouldn't be able to understand the images on your page. Remember the main reason for having an alt text is for better accessibility so keep that in mind. Alt text for images is vital to successfully optimize every aspect of your page content for search engines. And 64% of all Google organic search traffic is from mobile devices.Image Source: StatistaA website that’s not optimized for mobile loses. STEP 4: ALT-TEXT The website that has the featured snippet for "building a website" is Business Queensland. Helping Google to unlock the secret of your images also improve the global semantic of your website. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to … In this post, we'll take a closer look at what is alt text for images and try to understand why it plays such an essential role in SEO. Real human … Google uses it to understand more about the web page and what it’s about. So what is alt text for images? Search engines use the alt text to understand what an image is all about and it’s good for SEO. Alt text or alternative text is also known as "alt descriptions" or "alt attributes." Put simply, 'Alt Text' means 'Alternative text for images'. What is more important for image SEO is the ALT text. is to describe images to visitors who are unable to see them. Providing for an alt text for all your images is important for four reasons: Alt text is the most important element to configure when doing SEO for images because it helps search engine crawlers understand the subject matter of the image. Alt text has a few uses: Used by screen reader technology to describe images out loud for visually impaired website visitors To display instead of the image if the image is broken or loads slowly Users who are visually impaired and use screen readers can hear a description of the image. You've created high-quality, informative content to appeal to your audience. Continuing our article series on accessibility requirements, Alternative Text or Alt-Text is an area that is often misunderstood. ALT TEXT is the most important element of image SEO. At the same time it … Applying an alt attribute on an image helps Google understand what an image is about to serve it in image results. And you can't afford to miss out on these valuable opportunities if you want to get to the top of relevant search results. Image alt text also helps describe an image when a subscriber’s email client blocks images. optimized the text with the right keywords, discover highly profitable and relevant keywords, Google Advanced Search Operators: 50+ Google Search Commands, WWW vs Non WWW: Which is Right from SEO Perspective. Thanks Alex. Images are blocked to display through the firewall or local server. Image "Alt Text" should not exceed the overall width of your image in your message. Because alt text, or alternative text, is the alternate text attribute of the image tag. This is because a screen reader, in order to describe the purpose of the link, will default to reading out the image filename when no alt text … Includes a step-by-step guide on "how to write amazing ALT text" with real life image examples. It won’t make a big difference. Alt text best practices: Eventually, image alt text should be distinct yet in addition descriptive of the point of the webpage. Today, we’re going to talk about image alt text optimization (or image alt tag optimization, what some would call “image SEO”). Your email address will not be published. How Do I Use Alternative Text for SEO? If an image has text in it, that text should be the alt text. You should add an alt text to all your images, including your logo, images used on buttons, and images used as backgrounds. You can add other words, but the alt text should say the same thing as the image. There are two ways to do this: manually by editing the HTML code or through your CMS. How do you write good alt text (with examples)? Plus, it’s easy to do for many clients! A good way to ensure that your description is accurate is to write it thinking how to best describe the image to users who cannot see it. These numbers highlight the importance of ensuring visibility for your visual content. Logos But even for these, it’s important to look at the image’s context – if there’s HTML-rendered text adjacent to the image that gives you the same information, then providing alt text can be redundant. If you want your images to be visible in specific search results, all you need to do is include the target keyword in your alt text. ", Your main keyword may not fit naturally into the alt text but you may be able to use the other variations. 1- Alt text helps search engine crawlers to understand image descriptions, context, and function which brings an improvement to index the image properly for search results. So they need a bit of human guidance to understand those elements, properly index them, and display them in relevant search results. Go to your WordPress Dashboard. However, what have you done to optimize your images? You need to be able to provide your clients with a detailed report that helps them, Mobile accounts for 51.65% of web page views worldwide. This can happen if they have images turned off in their email client, or are reading your campaign with a screen reader. Alt text is also shown if the image on your page can’t be found or can’t be displayed for any reason. The alt text appears in a blank box that would normally contain the image. 2- Users still know the function of the picture if it is not displayed on the webpage because the Alt text explains it all. Now, whenever subscribers receive your messages and their images aren't set to display by default, they will see the "Alt Text" for that image instead! Google states: Simply add an alt attribute to the tag in the HTMLcode. Alt tags are fundamental for accessibility and user experience. 'Re uploading an image helps Google understand what an image is about ca n't afford to miss on. Short description that you should remember are reading your campaign what is alt text for images a picture... 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