Skip to content
SEO & AEO

Alt text

Also known as: alt attribute · alternative text · image alt tag

Definition

Alt text is the written description in an image's alt attribute. Screen readers read it aloud for people who cannot see the image, browsers show it when the image fails to load, and search engines use it to understand what the image shows.

Write it for a person first: describe what the image shows and why it is on the page, as you would to someone on the phone. Skip 'image of', because screen readers already announce an image, and leave out keyword lists, since a listener hears every word. A decorative image, such as a divider or a background flourish, should carry an empty alt attribute so that screen readers pass over it.

Text inside an image is the common failure. A promotional banner or a menu photo with the offer baked into the pixels can't be selected, translated or read by a screen reader unless the alt text repeats it, and real page text is better still. Product photos deserve the same care: state the colour, material and model, not just the product category.

On an Arabic page the alt text should be in Arabic, written with the same care as the visible copy. English alt text left on an Arabic page is announced in the wrong language. Audit by switching images off in a browser, or by running a screen reader over the page once: every image should either say something useful or say nothing.

Worked example

Say a Sharjah furniture store photographs a sofa. 'Sofa dubai cheap sofa buy sofa online' stuffs keywords and describes nothing. 'Three-seater grey fabric sofa with wooden legs' tells a screen-reader user, and a search engine, what is in the picture.

More in SEO & AEO

All 193 terms
Put it to work

Definitions are free.So is the cost review.

A short call, then a written review inside 72 hours: what your marketing costs, what it produces, and what is worth fixing first.

hello@magnetickeys.comWhatsApp +971 52 529 5577Al Khawaneej, Dubai · United Arab Emirates