As an online marketer, you know the importance of SEO. And as someone who is building or managing a website, you also understand how important it is to have high-quality content that is optimized for search engines.
But what about the images on your website? Are you doing everything you can to ensure that they contribute to your site's overall SEO?
One important way to optimize your images for SEO is to make sure that they all have alt tags. Alt tags are a bit of HTML code that allows you to provide a text description of an image.
If you're not sure how to add alt tags to your images, don't worry – it's actually straightforward. We'll discuss everything you need to know about alt text for images, what is alt text, and how an alt text is essential to SEO.
What is an Image Alt Text or Tag?
An image alt text is a word or phrase that can be inserted into the HTML of a web page to describe an image. Search engines read the alt text and use it to help them understand what the image is about.
Simply put, it's an anchor text that allows search engines, like Google, to understand what the image of your site is about or showing.
It then uses this HTML attribute when showing image search results for a certain product or service. This is what makes image SEO important.
Primary Importance of Alt Text
Adding alt attributes and alt text to images is essential for two main reasons:
- Visually impaired people may use screen readers to browse the web. The screen reader will read the alt text of an image aloud so that the person knows what is on the page.
- Search engines use the information in the alt text to index images and determine how relevant they are to a particular search query.
If you don't provide alt text for an image, a search engine will have no way of knowing what it is and will be unable to index it. This means that your image will not show up when someone searches for keywords related to the image. In other words, you'll be missing out on potential traffic to your site.
How to Add Alt HTML Attributes to Website Images
Adding an alt attribute to an image is relatively simple. All you need to do is add the following code to the image tag:
<img src=”image.jpg” alt=”This is the alt text”>
Be sure to replace “image.jpg” with the actual URL of the image of your blog post or any page content, and “This is the alt text” with your actual alt text.
It's important to note that you should only use alt attributes on images that are actually part of your website content. If you have decorative images or images that are used for spacing, you can leave the alt attribute blank or use a short, generic description like “decorative image.”
Additionally, it's not necessary to use an
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alt attributes on every image on your website. You should only use them on images that are important to the content of the page and that you want search engines to index.
Tips in Writing a Good Alt Text to Images
When writing an alt text for image SEO, there are a few things you should keep in mind:
1. Keep it short and to the point
The ideal length for an alt text is between one and two sentences. To add an alt description longer than that will result in the risk of losing the reader's attention.
2. Use keywords judiciously
It's important to include relevant keywords in your alt text so that search engines can index your images properly. But don't go overboard – too many keywords will make your alt text sound spammy and could actually hurt your SEO.
3. Describe the image accurately
Make sure that your alt text accurately describes what is in the image. Don't try to be clever or cute – just give a concise description. Don't use generic phrases like “image” or “photo” as well.
4. Avoid keyword stuffing
As we mentioned before, too many keywords in your alt text will make it sound spammy and could actually hurt your SEO. So avoid repeating the same keyword over and over again. You can use a target keyword instead to avoid keyword stuffing.
5. Use alt text for decorative images
Even if an image is purely decorative, you should still include an alt text. The best way to do this is to use a short, generic description like “decorative image” or “spacer.”
This tells the search engine that the image is not relevant to the page's content and prevents it from being indexed incorrectly.
6. Don't forget about capitalization
When writing your alt text, be sure to capitalize the first letter of each word. This makes reading easier and helps the search engine index the words correctly.
7. Use proper grammar
Just as with the rest of your website content, it's essential to use proper grammar in your alt text. This includes using correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.
8. Don't use image file names as alt text
Never use an image file name as your alt text – always write out descriptions for each image. File names are often long and confusing, and they don't accurately describe what is in the image.
9. Avoid jargon
Jargon is an industry-specific language that is not widely understood outside of a particular field. It's important to avoid jargon in your alt text so that people outside of your industry can understand what your images are about.
10. Test your alt text
Once you've written your alt text, be sure to test it to ensure it is working correctly. The best way to do this is to use a screen reader to see how the alt text sounds. If it is difficult to understand or sounds spammy, revise it until it is clear and concise.
By following these guidelines, you can be sure that your images are properly optimized for search engines and that they are adding value to your website.
How Does an Alt Tag Contribute to SEO's Best Practices
There are a few ways that alt texts can help with your website SEO:
1. It helps search engines index your images
If you don't include an alt text, search engines, especially Google, will have no way of knowing what is in your image and they will not be able to index it.
This means that your image will not show up when someone searches for keywords related to the image.
2. It makes your website more accessible to visually impaired audiences
Alt text is used by screen readers to describe images to people who are blind or have low vision. This makes your website more accessible and improves the user experience for everyone.
3. It helps improve click-through rates
Adding relevant keywords to your alt text can help improve click-through rates from image search results. This is because people will be able to see what the image is about before they click on it.
4. It can help improve your rankings
If you use keywords carefully, they can help improve your website's ranking in search results, like Google ranking. But be careful not to stuff your alt text with too many keywords.
Keyword stuffing will make your site look spammy and could actually hurt your ranking.
5. It helps reduce bounce rates
Bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave your website after viewing only one page. Adding relevant alt text to your images can help reduce bounce rates by ensuring that people stay on your site longer.
Conclusion
Alt text is an important part of SEO and should be used on all images on your website. Just be sure to use keywords carefully and avoid keyword stuffing.
Remember that you can always come to professional SEO agencies or experts to help you add alt tags to your page images.
By following these guidelines, you can be sure that your images are properly optimized for search engines and that they are adding value to your website.
