Html Alt Text: A Comprehensive Guide to Writing and Implementation

Writing alt text for HTML images is a crucial step in making your website accessible to everyone. Alt text should be a concise description of the image, ideally no more than 125 characters.

A good alt text should be descriptive enough to convey the image's content, but not so long that it becomes a distraction. The ideal length of alt text is a topic of debate, but most experts agree that it should be under 125 characters.

Images without alt text are essentially invisible to screen readers, which are used by visually impaired users to navigate the web. This means that if you don't provide alt text, your website may not be accessible to a significant portion of your audience.

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Alt text matters for three reasons: accessibility, user experience, and image traffic. Understanding these reasons will help you write effective alt text.

Accessibility is a top priority for alt text. It's essential for people with visual impairments who use screen readers to navigate websites. Image alt text provides a description of the image, allowing users to understand the content.

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User experience is also crucial. Alt text helps users quickly grasp the content of an image, saving them time and effort. This is especially true for users who don't want to load images or have slow internet connections.

Image traffic is another reason alt text matters. It helps search engines understand the content of images, which can improve image search rankings and drive more traffic to your website.

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Specificity is key when writing alt text. It should form a clear mental image of what the content is, describing the image as specifically as possible.

To avoid keyword stuffing, don't overdo it with the keywords. Use relevant keywords from research in alt text, but avoid overstuffing, as it can detract from user experience and search engine perception.

For complex images like maps or charts, follow the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines. This ensures that intricate visuals are accessible to everyone.

Alt text for buttons should be descriptive and explain their function. Ensure image buttons like "submit" have an alt attribute that describes their function.

To write good alt tags, prioritize describing what's happening in the image over SEO purposes. Keep alt tags short and descriptive, using just one or two keywords.

Imagine reading the alt text out loud and having someone else form a reasonably accurate version of the image. If it sounds like that, you're on the right track.

Don't include redundant phrases like "image of" or "picture of." Contextually specify for screenshots or video stills if necessary. It's already assumed that alt text is describing an image or picture.

Specificity is key when it comes to writing effective alt text. Describe the image as specifically as possible, and aim to form a clear mental image of what the content is.

To avoid keyword stuffing, don't cram your keywords into every single image's alt text. Instead, include your keyword in at least one of the images, and stick to more aesthetic descriptions in the surrounding media.

For decorative images, use CSS, not HTML. If an image truly doesn't convey any meaning or value, it should live within the CSS of your site, rather than your HTML.

To write optimized alt text, keep it short and descriptive, using just one or two keywords. This will help you avoid overstuffing and ensure that your alt text is helpful to users, not just search engines.

Here are some key things to keep in mind when writing alt text:

Remember, the goal of alt text is to help users understand what's happening in an image, not just to manipulate search engines. By following these best practices, you can create alt text that's both effective and user-friendly.

Alt text is a crucial element for SEO, and it's not just about describing images to visually impaired users. According to Google, alt text is used in combination with computer vision algorithms and the contents of the page to understand the subject matter of images.

Not setting alt text for images can have a detrimental effect on the ranking of your web pages. Alt text provides context to what an image is displaying, informing search engine crawlers and allowing them to index an image correctly.

Alt text is also important for image search results. Google notes that its Search Generative Experience (SGE) can give people a well-rounded shopping experience with noteworthy options, product descriptions, pricing, and images in one single snapshot. If your product images have descriptive and specific alt text, you give search engines the context to know when to surface your product as a high-quality choice in someone's results.

Google treats alt text like any other text on the page, but it's especially important for image search ranking. According to Google's John Mueller, alt text is an image search ranking factor.

Adding alt text to your website is easier than you think. Most content management systems (CMSs) allow you to add alt text by clicking on an image in the body of a blog post, which produces an image optimization or rich text module.

You can then create and change the image's alt text in this module. In HubSpot, you'll find the edit icon (which looks like a pencil) when you click on an image. Clicking this icon will bring up an image optimization pop-up box.

Your alt text is then automatically written into the webpage's HTML source code. This means you can edit the image's alt text further if your CMS doesn't have an easily editable alt text window.

The more images you optimize with alt text, the better your SEO strategy will be. Consider performing a basic audit of your existing content to see where you can incorporate alt text into previously untagged pictures.

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As you're writing alt text, remember that it doesn't have to be long, but it does need to be detailed and descriptive to benefit the user as much as possible.

A good alt text should be concise and to the point, describing the relevant content of the image without being too short. For instance, if an image is of a sunset, the alt text should describe the colors, shapes, and textures of the scene, rather than just saying "sunset".

Here are some common mistakes to avoid when writing alt text:

By being aware of these common mistakes, you can create effective alt text that helps users understand the content of your images.

Alt text for specific elements is crucial for search engines to properly index images. It's not just about being descriptive, but also about being specific. A good example of this is an image of Fenway Park, where the Red Sox's #34 David Ortiz is hitting a baseball. This adds important context that Google can use to index the image.

To achieve this level of specificity, you need to think about what makes the image unique. In the case of the Fenway Park example, the fact that it's a picture of a specific baseball field and a specific player makes it easier for search engines to understand what the image is about.

Here are some examples of alt text for specific elements:

By using specific language in your alt text, you can help search engines understand the content of your images and make them more accessible to users with disabilities.

Context is just as important as specificity when writing alt text. For example, if you're publishing an image of a baseball field, mentioning the specific details like Fenway Park and David Ortiz can help Google index the image properly.

But what if your image doesn't have official context? That's where the topic of the article or webpage comes in. You can use key word choices from the article to describe the image and help Google associate it with certain sections.

In fact, omitting key word choices can lead to missing out on important details, like in the example of publishing an image of a HubSpot office with an article about going to business school.

The goal is to make the alt text detailed and descriptive, so it benefits the user as much as possible.

When describing a photo of a person, alt text should include the subject's name, if possible. This helps visually impaired users understand the content of the image.

For example, if the photo is of a famous person, the alt text might be "Portrait of Albert Einstein." This concise description allows users to quickly grasp the image's content.

In cases where the photo is of a group of people, the alt text should identify the individuals if possible, and also provide context about what's happening in the image. For instance, if the photo is of a wedding, the alt text might be "Wedding party with bride and groom, surrounded by guests."

If the photo is of a person in a specific setting, the alt text should include that information. For example, if the photo is of a person sitting at a desk, the alt text might be "Man sitting at a desk with papers and a computer."

Visualizations are a crucial part of making your content more accessible, and it's surprising how often they're overlooked.

For complex images like flowcharts, graphs, diagrams, and infographics, the key is to describe what type of chart or diagram is being used. Start your alt text with phrases like "Pie chart" or "Bar graph."

You should also consider the purpose of the image within the context of the surrounding content. Describe important data trends, relationships, and other parts of the image that are being highlighted.

Don't repeat parts of the main text in the alt text. If a paragraph under a bar chart describes the trends, you don't need to repeat this description in the alt text.

For very detailed images that require a longer description, include a short description in the alt text and provide a link to the data table or a longer description of the graphic beneath the image.

Incorporating alt text for form elements can be a bit tricky, but it's essential for making your forms accessible and user-friendly. A red asterisk incorporated as part of the label text is a helpful approach, as it eliminates the need for an image with alt text.

This approach is particularly effective when the alt text for the red asterisk clearly states its purpose, such as "Required". This provides users with a clear understanding of what the asterisk signifies.

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On the other hand, using alt text like "Asterisk" or "Star" can be unhelpful, as it doesn't convey the asterisk's purpose. It's also a good idea to avoid using images of red asterisks altogether, as they require alt text that accurately describes their purpose.

Here are some key takeaways for form elements:

Spacers and separators are typically decorative, especially if you're using headers to organize your content.

If you're using lines and separators to convey meaning or initiate action, the alt text must provide the same information conveyed visually.

Spacers and similar structural images are decorative and should be marked as such so they're skipped by screen readers.

This is important for maintaining a smooth user experience, especially for those who rely on screen readers to navigate your content.

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Watermarks are not readable by screen readers, so if they contain important information, you need to repeat it in the main content.

If a watermark is decorative, no additional information is required. It's like adding a pretty picture to your document, and it doesn't need a description.

All watermarks should have low color contrast to ensure the main text remains readable for people with low vision. This means choosing colors that won't obscure the main text.

Avoid using watermarks altogether if possible, as they can make the main text hard to read for users with low vision.

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