Alt text (alternative text) is a short written description of an image that lives in its HTML code. Search engines cannot see images, so they read the alt text to understand what a picture shows, and screen readers read it aloud to people who cannot see it. Writing clear, descriptive alt text is one of the simplest ways to improve your image SEO, earn traffic from image search, and make your site accessible to everyone.
Alt text is the value of the alt attribute on an HTML image tag. It describes the content and purpose of the image in a few words. Here is what it looks like:
<img src="golden-retriever-puppy.jpg" alt="Golden retriever puppy sitting in a field of grass">The text is not normally shown on the page. It is used by search engines to index the image, by screen readers to describe it out loud, and by the browser as fallback text if the image fails to load.
Do not confuse the alt attribute with the title attribute. The alt attribute describes the image for SEO and accessibility and belongs on every meaningful image. The title attribute only shows a tooltip when you hover, is optional, and is not used the same way by search engines or screen readers. For SEO, focus on alt text.
Yes. Alt text is a genuine ranking factor for images, and it supports the SEO of the whole page. Here is how it helps:
Alt text will not single handedly push a page to the top of Google, but it is a fast, low effort win that compounds across every image on your site.
Good alt text describes the image clearly and naturally, as if you were describing it to someone who cannot see it. Follow these rules:
alt="") so screen readers skip it.alt="", so screen readers skip it.alt="" instead.Alt text is not only about SEO. It is a core part of web accessibility. People who are blind or have low vision use screen readers that read the alt text aloud, so a missing or unhelpful description shuts them out of your content. Strong alt text:
alt=""?When you upload pictures to MyIMGs.org, you can add a description to each one, and our free image tools let you resize and compress images before you publish them, another easy win for image SEO and page speed.
Yes. Search engines use alt tags to understand images, which helps those images rank in image search and adds relevance to the page. It is a small but real ranking factor.
It does. Alt text improves image search visibility, reinforces the topic of the page, and supports accessibility, all of which contribute to SEO.
Alt tags are important but not decisive on their own. They will not outrank strong content and links, yet they are one of the easiest optimizations you can make, and they add up across every image on a site.
About 125 characters or less is a good target. That is long enough to describe most images clearly and short enough that screen readers do not cut it off.
Because keyword stuffed alt text reads as spam to search engines and can hurt rankings, and it fails its main job of describing the image for people who use screen readers. Write a natural description and include a keyword only if it genuinely fits.
Image alt text in SEO is the descriptive text on an image tag that tells search engines what the image shows, so they can index it and rank it in image search results.
No. Purely decorative images should use an empty alt attribute (alt="") so screen readers skip them. Reserve alt text for images that carry meaning.
Alt text is one of the highest return, lowest effort tasks in image SEO. Describe each meaningful image clearly, keep it concise, use keywords naturally, and set decorative images to alt="". Do that consistently and you will earn more image search traffic while making your site accessible to everyone.