As businesses make efforts to create websites that offer a seamless experience for every user, the importance of accessibility and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an important topic. One key aspect that serves both of these goals is alt text. Alt text, or alternative text, is often overlooked, yet it has the power to enhance the accessibility of a website while also improving its SEO. In this blog, we’ll explore how alt text impacts both areas and why businesses should prioritize it. We will also examine how AI-powered tools can make the process easier and more effective.

What Is Alt Text?

Alt text refers to the description of an image embedded in a webpage’s HTML code. Its primary role is to describe images to users who cannot see them—whether the image fails to load or the user is visually impaired and relies on a screen reader. The screen reader reads the alt text aloud, allowing these users to access the same content as sighted users.

However, alt text also plays a crucial role in SEO. Search engines like Google cannot "see" images the way humans can. Instead, they rely on text-based signals, such as alt text, to understand and index the content of images. Properly written alt text provides search engines with valuable context, helping them categorize and rank images appropriately, which can improve a website’s visibility.

The Accessibility Impact

Alt text is vital for accessibility. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 2.2 billion people worldwide live with some form of vision impairment . These users depend on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, to navigate the web. Without descriptive alt text, images are meaningless to these users, leading to a fragmented, frustrating experience.

For instance, a visually impaired user visiting an e-commerce site without alt text might miss key information about product images. Without descriptions, they may not know what’s being sold, which directly impacts their ability to shop independently. Websites that include effective alt text make it easier for all users to engage with their content, regardless of their abilities.

Alt text also helps individuals with cognitive disabilities, as it provides simple explanations of complex images. This reduces the cognitive load of processing visual content, making the web more accessible to people who might otherwise struggle.

The SEO Advantages

From an SEO perspective, alt text is a critical component of on-page optimization. Since search engines can't interpret images in the same way humans do, they rely on alt text to determine what an image represents. This information helps search engines categorize the image, which can influence where the image—and the surrounding page—ranks in search results.

For example, if you run an online clothing store and include a product image of a red winter coat without any descriptive alt text, search engines might overlook the image. However, if you include alt text like "women's red winter coat with faux fur hood," search engines can better index the image for relevant queries, such as "red winter coat" or "women's faux fur hooded jacket." This makes it easier for potential customers to find your products through image search, driving more organic traffic to your site and increasing the likelihood of sales.

Alt text also plays a role in image search rankings. Google processes more than 1 billion image searches daily. By providing relevant alt text, you increase your chances of appearing in these image search results, driving more traffic to your site.

The Challenges Businesses Face

Despite the clear benefits, many businesses struggle with generating high-quality alt text. Common challenges include:

• Volume: Large websites often contain thousands of images, which makes manual alt text creation a time-consuming and resource-intensive process.
• Consistency: Ensuring that alt text is consistent across a site can be difficult, especially when multiple contributors are responsible for writing it. Inconsistent or vague alt text can detract from both accessibility and SEO efforts.
• Balancing Detail with Brevity: Good alt text needs to strike the right balance between providing enough detail for accessibility without overloading the description with unnecessary information or keywords.
• Compliance: Many regions have specific web accessibility laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Failure to meet these requirements can result in legal repercussions, as seen in cases where major companies have faced lawsuits for non-compliance .

Case Study: The Impact of Quality Alt Text

The Search Initiative, a SEO company working with a fashion e-commerce brand emphasized the importance of optimizing image alt text to help boost search engine performance. They recommended using descriptive, keyword-optimized alt text, especially for high-value product images, to improve both accessibility for users relying on screen readers and the site's visibility in Google Image Search. By ensuring each product had a unique alt text—describing not just the product type but also its attributes, such as color and material—the site became more discoverable for relevant image searches, potentially driving more targeted traffic.

How AI Tools Simplify Alt Text Generation

Given the volume of images on many websites, creating descriptive, SEO-optimized alt text manually can be a daunting task. This is where AI-powered tools like A11y Alt come into play. Our AI-powered alt text generation tool uses cutting-edge machine learning algorithms to analyze images and automatically generate accurate, detailed descriptions.

Here’s how our tool simplifies the process:

1. Image Analysis: A11y Alt AI scans the website to identify and categorize images based on their purpose—informative, decorative, functional, text-based, complex, or grouped.
2. Prompt Refinement: Refine prompts to ensure the AI captures detailed and relevant aspects of each image. This step is crucial as it allows for the customization of text alternatives that accurately reflect the intended message and context.
3. Text Alternative Generation: A11y Alt AI produces concise, accurate text alternatives, ensuring compliance with accessibility standards and enhancing user experience.

An online marketplace could benefit greatly from our AI-powered alt text generation tool by improving the accessibility and searchability of their site. The tool offers automated yet precise alt text creation for product images, helping businesses manage large image catalogs while ensuring compliance with accessibility standards. This solution also supports SEO efforts, as search engines rely on descriptive alt text to better index images, potentially enhancing visibility in image search results.

Conclusion

Alt text is a small but powerful element that plays a critical role in both accessibility and SEO. For businesses, investing in high-quality alt text can lead to a more inclusive user experience and higher visibility in search engines. Yet the challenge of generating alt text consistently and at scale remains.

Our AI-powered alt text generation tool offers an effective solution, combining the efficiency of machine learning with the accuracy of human expertise. Whether your goal is to improve accessibility, boost SEO, or comply with legal standards, investing in quality alt text is a smart move that benefits both your users and your business.