Where is Alt Text used?
Alt text is used within the alt attribute of the HTML image tag. This placement is necessary because the alt attribute is the standard coding element that screen readers and search engine crawlers are programmed to look for when processing an image. It is an invisible piece of metadata.
What are the Best Practices for writing effective Alt Text?
Effective alt text is concise, describes the image briefly, and is relevant to the surrounding content. This method aims to meet the objectives of ensuring information is understandable for accessibility tools and providing relevant context for search engine indexing.
• Describe in detail: The main subject, action, and setting should be the focus of your description.
• Be brief: Your goal should be to have short, clear explanations.
• Consider redundancy: It can involve decreasing the frequency of phrases like “picture of” or “image of” in descriptions.
• Focus on function: In the case of interactive elements, the description should be the action (e.g., “Link to the homepage.”)
• Write naturally: The description should be crafted for a human reader first.
How does Alt Text help with SEO?
Alt text is essential for SEO because it provides search engine crawlers with information that they cannot obtain just by viewing the image. The alt attribute serves as a text anchor, connecting visual content to the page’s topic, which may affect its ranking in web and image search.
• Implementing keyword variation is highly recommended. Supposing your main keyword is “electric scooter,” you can put “e-scooter for commuting” in the alt text of a related image so that a wider variety of searches is captured.
How long should Alt Text be?
The alt text must be straightforward and, if possible, less than 125 characters. The reason for this length is that most screen readers will only present the first 125 characters of the alt text to the user, and shorter text is quicker for a user to understand.
Should I use keywords in Alt Text?
It is correct that you should use alt text for the image with keywords that correspond to the image, but only if they go naturally in the description. 关键词 play a significant role in SEO, but the primary purpose of alt text is to enhance accessibility. The use of numerous keywords in alternative text is relevant to user experience and search engine rankings.
Do all images need Alt Text?
Descriptive alt text is not required for every image; the decision to provide it depends on the image function. This distinction is a crucial point in accessibility. Images that contribute to the message may benefit from descriptions, and purely decorative images might be excluded from screen reader recognition to reduce auditory clutter.
How should Alt Text be written for decorative images?
Images serving only decorative purposes can use an empty or null alt attribute: alt=””. The presence or absence of an alt attribute may influence how a screen reader interprets an image, potentially categorizing its content as supplementary.
示例: Line dividers or background textures primarily intended for decoration might use alt=””.
总结
Alt text is an indispensable element of modern web development, serving as the bridge between visual content and universal accessibility. Implementing image descriptions can impact a website’s SEO and its approach to user experience.
