Alt text, also known as “alt tags” or “alt descriptions,” is an important factor to consider when it comes to SEO for web development. Alt text is a HTML attribute that provides a text description of an image for visually impaired users and search engines. By optimizing your website’s alt text for SEO, you can improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and drive more traffic to your site.
Here are a few ways to optimize your website’s alt text for SEO:
- Use descriptive and relevant alt text. The alt text should provide a clear and concise description of the image, and should include relevant keywords when possible. This will help search engines understand the content of the image and can improve its visibility in image search results.
- Keep alt text short and sweet. Alt text should be brief, ideally less than 125 characters, as search engines may truncate longer descriptions.
- Use unique alt text for each image. Each image on your website should have its own unique alt text, rather than using the same text for multiple images.
- Use alt text for decorative images. Alt text should not be ignored for decorative images, even though they do not add significant information to the content. The text should be left empty or use the value “decorative image” so that the screen readers won’t read it as important information.
- Use alt text for videos. Alt text can also be used for videos, in the form of video captions or transcripts, to provide a text description of the video for visually impaired users and search engines.
In summary, alt text is an important factor to consider when it comes to SEO for web development. By using descriptive and relevant alt text, keeping it short and sweet, using unique alt text for each image, using alt text for decorative images, and using alt text for videos, you can optimize your website’s alt text for SEO and improve your website’s visibility in SERPs and drive more traffic to your site.
