Primarily known as alternative text, alt text is much more critical than one would think. Alt text is a piece of text that describes and summarizes an image within the HTML code. Keep reading below to learn and understand the significance of including alt text.
Purpose of Alt Text
The original idea of alt text was to explain an image that had difficulty loading correctly. Back in the day, when the internet was slow and nowhere near as fast as today, the alt text could tell you whether an image was too heavy or oversized to be loaded onto your browser. In 2024, it is rare for the image-loading process to fail, but if it does fail, then you will see the alt text take the place of the image. Alt text is also constructive because it helps engine bots navigate the image’s main idea and content.
Importance for SEO
Today’s online world is a visual experience; finding a website without any images posted and displayed is difficult, which is why alt text is so important, especially in SEO optimization! Using the correct alt text optimization increases your ranking within Google image searches. Depending on the type of website you have, Google image search traffic can play a massive role in the success of your website. Just say you are running an e-commerce site; most users will likely start their search within the Google Images tab rather than typing the product name within the search bar. Please remember that Google and other search engines might display fewer product images if you do not stay up-to-date with alt-text optimization.
Alt Text Tips
Want to begin writing correct alt text but need to know how to start? Remember these tips and ideas when writing your alt text for images across your website!
- Avoid keyword stuffing: Your website will not rank appropriately for keywords by doing so.
- Keep it short but detailed: Avoid using multiple sentences within your alt text.
- Use target keywords: If a keyword does not fit well or describe the image, stay away!
- Avoid “this is an image of”: Google is very much aware that it is an image, so stay focused on describing the content.
- Be sure to understand the content: Just by reading your alt text, you should be able to visualize the image perfectly.
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