The proper phrase is "Alt Text SEO Strategy," or "Alt Text SEO." An HTML image tag can have a description feature called alt text, which stands for alternative text.
Its main objective is to give viewers who are visually challenged or whose browsers have disabled images a textual description of an image.
Additionally, since they cannot "see" ideas in the same way humans can, search engines employ alt language to interpret the content of images.
Optimizing alt text for search engines to raise the visibility and ranking of images in search results is known as an alt text SEO strategy.
You can improve your website's overall SEO performance by adding valuable and appealing photo alt text.
6 Ways For Boosting Your Alt Text SEO Technics
But why is alt text so important? And how can you use it to enhance user experience and SEO?
This article will teach you:
- Why alt text is crucial
- Adding Alt Text to Images
- Why not all photos should include alt text
- How to create effective alt text
- Good and bad alt-text examples
- How to identify and address issues with alt characteristics
1. Why alt text is crucial
For four key reasons, alt text is important.
1. Alternative text makes content more accessible
Many millions of visually challenged persons use screen readers to access online material.
These function by turning video and graphic content onscreen into audio.
Screen readers struggle with images without alt text since there is no way to tell the user what the image is about.
These pictures are typically skipped, or worse, they read the lengthy pointless file name.
Google talks about the importance of alt text for users with screen readers in their SEO starter guide.
2. Alternative text can improve “thematic relevance
Google looks at the words on a page to understand what it is about.
For example, if the page mentions Poodles, Labradors, and Golden Retrievers, then Google knows those are dog breeds.
What is the connection to pictures?
Because Google cannot always read photos when the context is "locked" on them.
By using alt text, you may aid Google in comprehending these images and, in turn, your website and its content.
3. Alt text might improve your Google Images ranking.
The second-largest search engine in the world is Google Images.
In comparison to YouTube, Bing, and all other search engines put together, it accounts for 20.45% of all online searches.
This implies that there is a chance to use Google Images to drive traffic.
John Mueller from Google claims that optimizing Google Images is an important part of Ranking.
For image links, the alternative text acts as the anchor text.
The clickable words that connect one online page to another are referred to as "anchor text." Google utilizes it to learn more about the website and its contents.
However, not every link is text; some are pictures.
Google clarifies:
Filling up your alt text when using an image as a link gives Google more information about the page you're connecting to. Suppose you needed to create anchor text for a text link.
2. Adding Alt Text to Images
Just add an alt attribute to the<img>
tag in the HTML code.
Image with an alt tag:
<img src=“pie.jpg” alt=“steak and ale pie”>
If you're using a modern CMS, it's possible to add alt text without digging into the HTML code.
For example, in WordPress, there is a field for alt text when adding an image to a page or post:
3. Why not all photos should include alt text
Yes, this is a common mistake.
If the image exists for aesthetic purposes and does not contain important information, then there is no need to add alt text.
For example, some websites have icons to separate content:
You shouldn't add alt text because they are already there by design. This will not improve the page's "SEO value" and will simply irritate users who use screen readers.
But here's something crucial to note...
The recommended practice is to add an empty alt attribute if a picture doesn't need one.
This is because while most screen readers will skip file names with an empty alt attribute, some will read file names when one is present.
It appears as follows:
<img src="spacer.gif" alt="">
4. How to create effective alt text
Alternative text is a simple concept. You should be fine as long as you adhere to these five recommendations.
- Be succinct. Long alt text can be bothersome for screen reader users. Be as succinct as you can. (If a lengthy description is desired, use the longest attribute.
- Be specific. Don't forget to describe the picture.
- Don't overuse keywords. Other keywords should not be used here.
- Don't call it an image. There's no need to start descriptions with "Image of..." or "Image of..." Screen readers and Google can both figure it out on their own.
- Prevent redundancy. Don't duplicate details that are already included in the image's context.
You don't need to include this description in the alt tag, for instance, if the text "Steve Jobs" appears directly beneath a picture of Steve Jobs. Google ought to recognize that the title serves as the alt text in most cases.
Additionally, don't forget to add alternative text for form buttons. Otherwise, some users won't be able to interact with your website since screen readers can miss it.
5. Good and bad alt-text examples
Let's use some examples to make sure we understand what functions well and what doesn't.
Bad: <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“photo of cheesecake”>
Acceptable : <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“cheesecake”>
Good : <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“Cheesecake with strawberries”>
Better : <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“Cheesecake with strawberries and cream”>
Bad: <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“image 4″”>
Acceptable : <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“orange amp”>
Good : <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“orange amp — 30 watts”>
Better : <img src=“cheesecake.png” alt=“orange amp — 30 watts AD30HTC — 30 watt amps”>
Please take note of the model number in the last image. Especially for photos on eCommerce product sites, this is an excellent practice.
6. How to identify and address issues with alt characteristics
The Ahrefs Site Audit is one of many tools that can crawl your website and discover any missing alternative characteristics.
The filenames make it obvious that they don't require alt text. Since they are decorative, we want a screen reader to ignore them.
Therefore, a better option is to audit and update alt tags for pages that already receive traffic rather than searching your site and fussing over every missing alt attribute (most sites have a lot of them missing).
There are 2 reasons for this
1. They have visually impaired readers
2.4% of US citizens have a visual impairment. That's about one in every 42 people, which means that, on average, if your page gets 10,000 visitors a month, 240 of them can't properly consume your content.
2. They could possibly get more traffic
Alt text can help images rank better on Google Images, and that drives more traffic. Even just a 1% increase on a page with 10,000 monthly views is an additional 100 visitors.
Here is the process:
Step 1. Find your most visited pages from organic search
Check Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or the “Top Pages” report in Ahrefs Site Explorer.
Step 2. Audit your alt attributes
Install the free Alt Text Tester Chrome extension, load the page with the most traffic, and then activate the extension.
If the alt text missing a warning will be issued.
Step 3. Repeat for more pages
Repeat this process for the most visited pages on your website. This should give you an idea if your alt text optimization is solid or needs work.
Since most websites drive most of their traffic to a handful of pages, this shouldn't take too long.
Conclusion
Alt text optimization is important, but it's not the be-all and end-all of image SEO. You should also optimize file names, display responsive images, consider lazy loading, and much more.