What is Alt Text and Why it is important in SEO?

To get the best results from your SEO efforts, you need to properly optimize every piece of your website content. 

You may have generated high-quality, useful material for your audience. Then strategically used target keywords in title, meta description, headings and texts. 

So, your on-page SEO efforts are complete, right? What have you done to optimize your media components?

Do you know you can add SEO text in images? Along with optimizing the content of your website, making the images SEO friendly is very important. 

For that, you'll need alternative text for images.

Images are a vital component of any blog or website to make that look good. It also boosts the user experience. So, alt tags SEO is becoming necessary to get greater prominence in SERP.

Being digital marketing company in Kolkata, we noticed many website owners forget about it or even ignore it. It's a big error to ignore adding alt text to images. Because it provides your rivals more chances to outrank you in search results.

In this post, we'll take a deeper look at what is alt text and the importance of alt text in SEO. You'll learn how to write alt text for images and do alt tags SEO. photos. Also, go through our handpicked best alt text for SEO examples. 

What is alt text?

So, what exactly is alternative text for images? 

It's an HTML code you attach to photos on your web page that defines what the image is. It's roughly 100 characters long.

Search engine crawlers and screen reading bots can better understand the appearance and role of your pictures if you include alt text. It isn't always apparent to normal visitors. 

Readers with visual impairments depend on website alt text to get extra information. You sometimes disregard it as part of your UX.

As a result, it provides improved online accessibility to visually challenged consumers. Also, search engine crawlers can correctly index your images. Thus, your chances of having those images appear in search results increase.

In addition, when an image file cannot load, alt text appears in that place. This description gives readers a clear view of the material on your page.

But, what is the importance of alt text in SEO? And how can you make it work for you in terms of user experience?

What is the importance of alt text in SEO?

In the SERP, there is an image tab for image results. Now, Google inserts several images at the top of the main results page, before any organic text results.

While researching for our SEO services Kolkata, we noted pictures appear in 38% of Google's SERPs. And we expected this number to rise. 

So, besides your best SEO efforts, your website's photos can become a source of organic traffic. 

Along with that, there is five basic importance of alt text in SEO.

1. Improves accessibility 

1. Enhances topic relevance

1. Rank higher in Google Images

1. Anchor text for image links

1. User experience

1. Boost on-page SEO

Let’s know each point in detail.

1) Alt text for images improves accessibility

Millions of individuals are blind or partially sighted. They use screen readers to access internet material. It converts on-screen material into audio.

Screen readers struggle with images that lack alt text. Because they have no method of communicating the image's information to the user. They usually skip it or read out useless image filenames.

In their SEO starting guide, Google emphasizes the necessity of alt text for screen reader users.

2) Increases topic relevance

To figure out what a page is about, Google looks at the words on it. Alt text is used to interpret the subject of images.

As a result, Google better understands not just the photos, but also the content. This may help them appear more often in image search results.

3) Rank higher in Google Images

Google Images is the second-largest search engine in the world. It accounts for 20.45% of all internet searches. So, it’s more popular than YouTube, Bing, and other search engines combined.

This shows that there is a possibility of driving traffic through Google Images.

Alt text keywords make them show in Google Images or as image packs. Image packs are unique results that show as a horizontal row of image links at any organic position, even the top place on a SERP.

Pictures in Google Images or image packs are another supply of organic traffic.

If anyone finds that image relevant to their query, they may visit your website to learn more. So, it is one of the most essential importance of alt text in SEO. 

4) Image links use alt text as anchor text

The clickable words that connect one website to another are referred to as anchor text. Google uses it to learn more about the web page and its purpose.

Some connections are pictures rather than text.

According to Google:

Filling up the alt text of an image that you use as a link helps Google understand more about the website you're connecting to. Assume you're working on anchor text for a text link.

5) User Experience

We already have seen that alt text improves the user experience for disabled people. It also improves the user experience for everyone. 

Assume a visitor has a poor connection, and your website's pictures aren't loading. They will notice the alt text beside the broken link mark. So, they will understand what the picture would represent.

This will improve the user experience compared to not having alt text.

6) Boost on-page SEO

While search engines have improved their ability to crawl text information, they cannot comprehend visuals. To comprehend those pieces, they need to index them.

So, if your photos don't have alt text, search engines can’t comprehend them. Also, they will not know when to show them in search results. Thus, such images become invisible to search engines.

According to a survey, 59% of people believe that visual information is more significant than text.

To go to the top, you need to use every available source of traffic. It means you can't ignore traffic from picture search results. Therefore, adding alt text to images and optimizing every component of your website for better exposure is critical.

How to write alt text for images?

Simply include alt text keywords in the HTML code for the image element.

An image with an alt tag is as follows:

<img src="abc.jpg" alt="alt text for images">

You can add alt text without accessing the HTML code if you're using a recent CMS.

When uploading an image in WordPress, there's a space for alt text. You can easily change the title and write the best alt text for SEO.

Best Practices for Adding Alt Text to Images

Let's look at how you can optimize your alt text for improved search engine exposure.

Here are some recommended practices and critical points to remember for best alt text for SEO:

• Be precise: The alternative text for images explains the image. As a result, it should be as comprehensive as necessary. It guarantees that if people can't see the picture, they can grasp what it's about. Use the specific context of the image.

• Include context relevant to the page's subject: Provide context based on the page's content. 

• Keep it short: While descriptiveness is desirable, you are not required to compose a paragraph to explain the picture. Keep your alt text to 125 characters or fewer. At this time, screen-reading tools frequently stop interpreting alt text.

• Get to the point straightforwardly: If there are too many aspects in the image, try to get right to the point. Explain only the most significant elements. Other aspects, such as the people in the background or the house, and the traffic don't require an explanation.

• Use keywords, but do it selectively: Only include your article's goal keyword in your alt text organically. Or use semantic keywords, which are the most significant phrases inside a long tail keyword. It gives you another chance to use your target keyword and educate search engines about the page's relevancy.

• Avoid stuffing your keyword: At least one of your photos should have your search term. Choose the picture that you believe best represents your subject and put your keyword. You should not use this as a chance to jam keywords into your alt text. Although Google may not punish you for a poorly written alt description, keyword stuffing will.

• Check for spelling mistakes: Misspelled words in SEO text in image may detract from the user experience. Also, cause search engines to get confused while indexing your site. You should examine an alt text in the same way as any other piece of information on the website.

• Don't include alt text in every picture: There are several exceptions to adding alt text to images on a website for SEO, UX, and accessibility reasons. An empty alt property should be used for images that are just ornamental or already explained. 

• Avoid mentioning that it is a picture. In descriptions, "Image of..." or "Picture of..." is unnecessary. Google and screen readers can figure it out on their own.

• Stop redundancy: Don't repeat stuff that is already included in the image's context. There's no need to explain every context in the alt tag SEO. Google should realize that the caption doubles as the alt text.

Remember to include alt text to form buttons as well. Otherwise, screen readers may skip them, preventing certain users from interacting with your website.

Is it necessary to provide alt text for all images?

This is a widespread misunderstanding.

Don’t write alt text if the picture is only for decoration and doesn't include any significant information. 

Some websites use symbols to segregate information. You shouldn't add alt text to them since they're meant to look nice. This will just frustrate screen reader users and will not add any "SEO value" to the website.

It goes the same for generic or stock photos. For visually challenged readers, including generic alt text isn't beneficial since it's information they don't need to know. 

But there's one thing to keep in mind...

If a picture doesn't need alt text, it's better to leave the alt tags SEO empty. So, most will ignore those.

Here's a sample of how it appears.:

<img src="baking.gif" alt=" "> 

Examples of Alt Text

The best alt text for SEO format is to be very detailed while avoiding keyword jamming. Like you are reading alt text instead of viewing the image, wouldn't you want it to be as accurate as possible?

Here are a few alt text SEO examples:

Bad: <img src=“cake.jpg” alt=“picture of cake”>

Okay: <img src=“cake.jpg” alt=“cake”>

Good: <img src=“cake.jpg” alt=“fruit cake”>

Best: <img src=“cake.jpg” alt=“fruit cake with whipped cream”>

Or,

Normal alt text: <img src="apple.png" alt="apple"> 

Ugly alt text: <img src=”apple.png” alt=” whole green apple in a basket on kitchen shelf”

This isn't really helpful. Sure, it's a bit detailed, but people don’t need such information. 

Good Alt Text: img src="apple.png" alt="green apple in basket">

This is a lot better than the normal example. It's properly detailed, and it's not simply an image of an apple.

Ugly Alt Text: <img src=”apple.png” alt=””> <img src="apple.png" alt="apple green apple apple basket apple in a basket">

Please don't use this kind of writing in your alt text. The first ugly example lacks alt text entirely, while the second displays keyword jamming.

What's wrong with these alt texts? There are just too many mentions of apple. Utilizing alt text to jam keywords into broken sentences adds unnecessary filler and detail to the image.

Finally

As the best digital marketing services in Kolkata, we consider alt text optimization crucial. But it isn't all about alt tags SEO. Also, consider filename optimization, serving responsive images, and long loading time.

It is not the primary focus of your SEO strategy, but among those minor but crucial factors that should not be ignored. Otherwise, you're giving your competitors more chances to outrank you in search results. As a result, anytime you post an image to your site, make it a habit to include alt text.

Now, how do you create alt text for your blog posts and webpages? Do a simple audit of your current content. Discover where alt text might be added to previously untagged images. Monitor how your organic traffic changes as you add fresh alt tags to the sites.

The more photos you optimize, the more effective your SEO approach will become.