What is alt text and why do you need it?

All businesses want a website that is SEO-friendly. SEO means that your business will rank higher on search engines, driving more traffic to your website and expanding your audience. There are many factors that play into optimizing your website. In fact, it can be a bit overwhelming if you have no experience with SEO. But, let’s start with the basics, one at a time.

One aspect that is easily overlooked is alternative text (also called alt text). It’s so easily overlooked because most of the time, you don’t even know it’s there! Alt text is a description of a photo. It is hidden in the code and not seen by most viewers. Alt text is used for the visually impaired, as a way to gain more information about the picture. It makes your website accessible to all viewers.

To write alt text, create a short description of the image. Be descriptive enough to get the message across, but avoid keyword stuffing.

But how does this improve your website’s SEO? Well, search engines decide which websites pop up first based on the content they can gather from each website. They gather a general idea of the content from the text itself, but they also look at pictures. The program that sorts websites – called search crawlers – cannot actually see images. If an image has no alt text attached, search crawlers will be forced to make an assumption about what the picture is.

Don’t leave your website’s rankings up to search engines. Using alt text tells the search engine what your image portrays, so it can be shown effectively and relevantly to users.

One problem with this is that it can be time-consuming, depending on how many photos are on your website. But, we can help. We have experience optimizing websites for businesses across many different industries. You can learn more about our SEO services on our website. We’d love to chat with you about your website!