What is alt text?#
<img src="search-console-pages-report.png" alt="Google Search Console Pages report showing 120 indexed and 45 not indexed pages">Why it matters#
- Accessibility: it’s essential for visually impaired users.
- Image search: it helps images rank in Google Images.
- Context: it adds relevance signals to the surrounding content.
How to write good alt text#
- Describe what the image shows and why it’s there, in one concise sentence.
- Include a keyword only if it naturally describes the image.
- Skip “image of” or “picture of” — screen readers already announce it’s an image.
- For screenshots and charts, describe the key information.
- Use empty alt (
alt="") for purely decorative images.
Examples#
| Bad | Good |
|---|---|
| image1 | Golden retriever puppy sitting on a red sofa |
| seo seo tips best seo | Checklist of on-page SEO elements: title, headings, links and images |
Other image SEO basics#
Use descriptive file names, compress images, serve WebP or AVIF, set width and height to prevent layout shift, and lazy-load images below the fold. Related: Core Web Vitals, on-page SEO.