Alt Text

Alt text (short for “alternative text”) is a written description of an image that helps screen readers explain visuals to users with vision impairments. It also gives search engines more context about your content, so it’s a win for both accessibility and SEO.

Alt Text Best Practices:

• Be descriptive: Explain the content and purpose of the image, like “Illustration of a dashboard UI showing user analytics.”
• Don’t start with “image of…”: Screen readers already announce it’s an image.
• Avoid keyword stuffing: Use natural language that actually describes the image.
• Decorative images? Skip it: If an image doesn’t add meaning, use an empty alt="" so it’s ignored by screen readers.

Alt text is essential for accessible design—and it’s often one of the easiest SEO wins on a site.