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Images: They provide a visual context for a post, they break up the big blocks of text, they make a post look much better, they …

… add to the SEO and ranking of a post?

Yes. In fact, image optimization can make a huge difference in whether your post is at the top of the SERPS.

But how do you optimize an image? Note: It is not color correction or cropping. It's your alt text.

What is Alt Text?

Alt text (also known as an "alt attribute" or "alt description") is a brief description that you apply to images on your website in the page's HTML, describing what the image is. For those of you who use WordPress it can be found here on the right side of the screen when you insert an image.

Alt text is not immediately visible and often goes unnoticed by the average visitor to your website (it usually only appears when you hover over the image). However, do not think that this is not important. Between good SEO practice and better access to your website, it is very valuable to include good alt text.

Alt text for SEO

Alt text is incredibly valuable for SEO purposes for one important reason:Without alt text, your images have no impact on your SEO ranking. Well-designed alt text ensures that your images are properly considered when Google is crawled and that they are prominently placed in search engine results.

Google's bots are very effective at crawling text, identifying keywords, and organizing headings, but they cannot recognize and understand visual elements. For this reason, text must be assigned to the image that is ideally written in a descriptive and relevant manner so that it actually contributes to your ranking.

And depending on the context for which your website is intended, images can be even more important than your text. When you're creating a sales page or landing page for a clothing company or a restaurant or grocery store, or when you're writing an article based entirely on infographics, for example.

In all of these cases, a large percentage of your website is likely to be made up of images as opposed to text, as these are the main things you want your visitors to see. In these cases in particular, you definitely do not want your informative, visually appealing website, which you have put a lot of effort into, to receive next to no traffic. A picture is worth a thousand words, but it doesn't matter if nobody sees it.

Alt text for accessibility

Alternate text also makes your website accessible to anyone who can visit it. And it's by far one of the easiest accessibility principles to follow. While many people are unlikely to ever see alt text, your blind and visually impaired viewers rely on it for a coherent and comprehensive understanding of what they are interacting with on your website.

Remember how bad Google is at crawling images? So are many of the "text to talk" programs that are used by the visually impaired. So when they come across an image on a site, there is no context for what is in the image without an alternate textual description.

If a large part of your article or website is made up of images and other visual elements, you need to make sure that everyone can interact with it. If you don't include the correct alt text, you are leaving out a whole chunk of your prospects. That does them and you a disservice.

Alt text as Fail Safe

There's another way alt text can help you: technical failure. It happens to anyone and everyone, and they'll happen to you sooner or later.

Whether it's a user – like a connectivity problem, a loading problem, or some other problem with their computer or phone – or a coding bug or a backend bug, there is a very good chance that your images will appear on your website not filled out correctly for every single person who visits your website.

If images are not filled in, the alternate text that you assign to the images appears in their place. That way, your visitors will still get an idea of ​​the point you are trying to get across, especially if your images are an integral part of your audience and understand what you have to say. At some point, something is going to go wrong and your alt text is your fail-safe when it does.

Best alt text practices

1. Use alternative text for each image

Just because an image has alt text on your website doesn't mean you're done. You really should make sure that every image on a webpage has at least one alternate text description, even if it's just a few words.

2. Describe your alt text

Typically, creating alt text for an image involves working around 100 characters, and you certainly don't have to use each one. But the more meaningful, the better. Let's use an archive image as an example:

You could describe this picture simply as a "man drinking coffee" and that would be technically correct. There is a man who drinks coffee but is it all worth noting where someone could get an idea of ​​what is happening without even seeing it? One could easily say, "A man is drinking coffee from a rooftop and looking at a city at sunset," and that would be well under 100 characters. Adding this additional description is worth it and doesn't do much more work.

3. Just describe the picture

Don't try to add unnecessary fluff to your alt text. You should contextualize the image with the rest of the article in the text copy. It is not necessary to do this in alt text. Make your descriptions descriptive but also keep them simple. There is no need to make it too complicated. This will only spoil everyone's understanding, especially in the event that you cannot see the picture at all.

4th Use your keywords in your alt text

This is the best way your images can help your ranking. Including your keyword in your alt text shows the Google crawlers that this post is really very helpful and informative. Does that mean you should try to fill your alt text with your keyword as much as possible? But should you at least try to take it up here and there? Absolutely. (Remember, if your keyword doesn't fit your article at least 5 to 7 times and in some images, it is likely not a good targeting keyword.)

Now that you know what alt text is, you're ready to incorporate it. You are your web design and marketing and have an edge over your competition!