What Are Alt Tags?
Alt tags are used to help describe images on a website.
The main reason Alt Tags exist are for web accessibility. Users with screen readers will read the Alt text used on each image to better understand the context of the image.
If an image doesn’t load on the website, Alt text will be displayed instead.
Alt Tags are also read by search engines for better context or descriptions. This means you can start to rank in image searches for certain keywords.
How To Add Alt Tags To Your Images
WordPress: After you upload an image to your media library click on the image to see the attachment details. Enter you Alt text in the “Alternative Text” field. That’s it!
HTML: If you are working with raw HTML code you can easily add the alt tag in your img src code. Below is an example:
<img src=”Dachshund-Puppy.jpg” alt=”Brown long haired dashsund” />
Best Alt Text Format
The best format for your alt text should be descriptive but not overly wordy or stuffed with keywords.
Let’s look at a few good and bad examples of alt text for this image of a super cute puppy:
Good example:
alt=”Brown long haired dachshund”
This alt tag is a good amount of descriptive text. Make sure you add a few adjectives describing the subject matter.
Bad examples:
alt=”dog”
This alt tag is too short and won’t add any value to users or search engines.
alt=”Brown long haired dachshund looking at the camera on a couch with a person in the background wearing a white t-shirt and shorts.”
This type of alt tag is filled with too many details and will give users with screen readers a bad experience.
Conclusion
Make sure you are always thinking about your alt tags when you add images to your website. You will notice an increase in your website traffic because your images will now be easily crawled by Google.
