What is the importance of Image ALT Text in SEO?

 

You may be surprised why we need ALT text if we already use EXIF Metadata for images. The reason is that when you upload a picture to social media sites, they remove the EXIF Metadata. That's why we need to provide ALT text to give context to your image.

In addition, WordPress strips the EXIF information when resizing the image. Also, ALT text is necessary for images that do not load or are not accessible on a website.

With the help of ALT text, you can describe the image accurately. ALT text is also beneficial for Search Engine Crawlers.

Let's discuss the ALT text in depth.

What is Alt Text?

ALT text is an acronym for Alternative Text. The purpose of the ALT text is to provide context to images. It's a simple bit of HTML code, and it looks like this:

<img src="logo.png" alt="put your alt text here"/>

It is different from your image title and caption.

What is the importance of ALT text?

There are several reasons why ALT text is so crucial:

1. Image Context
2. Search Engines
3. Visually Impaired Visitors
4. For Browsers
5. Image SEO

Let's see descriptive information about all reasons.

1. Image Context

As we already mention above ALT text provides context about the image. Further, It's different from the Title and Caption.

The caption describes the image to visitors, whereas the ALT text describes the image to search engines. In Addition, the Caption is visible on the website just below the photo, and ALT text is visible when the image fails to load. 

You can see ALT text in inspect element.

2. Search Engines

While AI (Artificial Intelligence) can recognize the picture, search engines still give priority to ALT text when explaining an image. Search engines understand the photo using ALT text. Through the use of ALT text, search engines crawl and index your images. ALT text can help you boost SEO.

3. Visually Impaired Visitors

ALT text helps Visually Impaired Visitors to understand your picture. They will be able to know what you're trying to convey by using ALT text. So, this is a good thing for visitors who have visual impairment.

4. For Browsers

If a browser cannot load the image, it displays an ALT text instead. You may see ALT text when your browser cannot render your picture.

See the example below:

<img src="logo.png" alt="put your alt text here">

The following are the possible causes of an image not loading:

1. Wrong Image Source/Path
2. Slow Internet Connection
3. Database problem

5. Image SEO

ALT text is also beneficial for Image SEO. ALT text can surely help you in Image ranking. Whether your article appears higher in SERP or not, your images can perform much better with Image SEO.

Image Search Results can also drive organic traffic to your website. You can check your image search performance on Google Search Console.

How to write the Best ALT Text for Images?

1. Write Descriptive and Short ALT Text.
2. Add Keywords in the Alt Text.
3. Avoid Keyword Stuffing.
4. Don't use phrases to write ALT Text.
5. Every image doesn't need an ALT Text.

Conclusion

I hope now you will understand the ALT text and its importance. Optimize your website images with ALT text and enjoy SEO benefits. The higher your images rank in image search, the more people will visit your page.

Give your thoughts on the "Importance of Image ALT Text in SEO" in the comment section. We'd love to hear what you think. To keep your SEO efforts up-to-date, hire a reputable Orange County SEO Company (Website Promoters L.L.C.)

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