Decoding the science behind the best Alt text practices for blog images

The importance of optimizing images for SEO

Are you looking to improve your website’s SEO?

Image alt text is an often overlooked but important part of SEO.

What is image alt text?
How to write it effectively.
Why does it matter in SEO?
Benefits of image alt text to optimize your website search rankings.

By the end of this article, you will understand why image alt text is an essential part of SEO and how to use it to its full potential.

What Is Image Alt Text?

Image alt text is a text description of an image that is added to the HTML code of a website. It is used to provide a brief explanation of the image and can be seen by search engines, screen readers, and other devices. Alt text is an important part of optimizing for SEO, as it helps search engines understand the content of the image and can impact how the image is ranked in search engine results.

How to Write Image Alt Text Effectively

Writing effective alt text is an important part of optimizing for SEO. When writing alt text, it should be descriptive, relevant to the image, and provide context. It should also be concise and use keywords that are relevant to the image and the topic of the blog.

Format the Alt Text

When writing image alt text, it's important to choose a good image that accurately represents the content of the blog. Once you've selected the image, you'll need to craft an alt text that describes the content of the image. When formatting the alt text, make sure to keep it simple and avoid using any punctuation.

Why It Matters to SEO?

Image alt text is an important part of optimizing for SEO as it helps search engines understand the content of the image and can impact how the image is ranked in search engine results. Alt text is also beneficial for people who use screen readers, as it provides a description of the image that they can understand. Alt text can help improve the user experience, as it provides a brief explanation of the image and can help people understand the content of the page.

By providing a description of the image and its content, search engines can accurately index and rank the page. Image Alt Text can also be used to summarize the image; this can be beneficial for users who are visually impaired, as they can use the Alt Text to understand the context of the image. In short, Image Alt Text helps search engines understand the content of an image and can help users, especially those who are visually impaired, understand the image being portrayed.

Writing effective and accurate alt text is essential to ensure your website reaches its full potential

Good vs. Bad Alt Text

Bad alt text can be anything that doesn't accurately describe the image, including generic phrases like "image" or "photo." It can also be too long or short or contain irrelevant information. Poorly written alt text can confuse readers and search engines, resulting in a lower ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). To maximize SEO value, the alt text should be descriptive, concise, and relevant to the content of the page.

Good alt text should be concise and descriptive and should accurately describe the image. For example, if you have an image of a laptop on your website, your alt text might read "laptop on a desk." Alt text should also be relevant to the blog title; in this case, it should explain what alt text is, how to write it, and why it matters to SEO.

Alt text best practices

1) Keep it short and sweet. An alt text should be no more than a few sentences long. It should be fewer than 125 characters.

2) Get to the point. An alt text should describe the image as concisely as possible.

3) Use keywords wisely. Include keywords that accurately describe the image, but don’t stuff them in.

4) Avoid jargon. Use language that is easy to understand.

5) Proofread. Make sure the alt text is free of spelling and grammatical errors.

Image alt text is an important part of SEO that can help your website become more accessible and rank higher in search engine results. Writing effective and accurate alt text is essential to ensure your website reaches its full potential. Although it may seem like a small step, it can make a big difference in the success of your website. As you continue to optimize your website for SEO, remember to include image alt text for all of your images.

Need help optimizing your alt text on images? What other strategies are you using to improve your website’s SEO? Contact Klusster Media for a range of SEO services that will help you get found online.