Alt Text: Considerations, SEO Implications, and Insights from Google

To understand alt text and attributes, it may be helpful to first review their benefits. Alt texts help search engines, people using assistive technologies, and even people with slow connections have a description of an image (Google image SEO best practices, Google LLC). With that said, at its core, alt text is used to describe images (Google image SEO best practices, Google LLC). Because understanding it technically can be vital, let us briefly touch on that aspect.

Technical Look at Alt Text

Websites are generally comprised of three components: structure, style, and functionality (What is SEO, and How Google Made Optimizing Websites Easier, DNH Dynamics, LLC). HTML is essentially the structure, and it provides a way to add alternative text to a few elements, including image elements (HTML alt Attribute, W3Schools). Essentially, this is what it can look like, with everything in the <img> being the image element, src=”/static/images/mail_icon.webp” being the path, alt=”” being the alt attribute, and the contents in the alt attribute being the alt text. If your website provider allows you to add alternative text, it grabs your provided text and inserts it into the alt attribute text section. Because we have seen automated auditing tools give websites passing grades just for having an alt attribute, but no text, it may be important to become proficient at manual auditing.

Reliably Find Alt Text

In a prior insight, we provided documentation on using developer tools in your desktop or laptop browser (SEO Audit: The Importance of Checking for H1 Heading Tags, DNH Dynamics, LLC). In the developer tools, there should be a feature that lets you hover over and select a specific element. In Microsoft Edge, once you're in the developer tools, it’ll look like a square with a cursor, or Ctrl + Shift + C for short. Once you select an image, you you should be able to navigate through the HTML, and check for alt text content. In a future insight, we will go more in-depth on developer tools.

Stats on Alt Text

When we review websites, we often find issues with alt text. Sometimes they are missing, contain no content, or are integrated in ways where alt text cannot be attached. In fact, a 2026 study by WebAIM found that 53.1% of the homepages studied had this issue (The WebAIM Million: The 2026 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages, WebAIM). Regarding SEO, this is an issue because Google has stated that alt text helps search engines understand images, noting that “writing good alt text is quite important” (Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide, Google LLC).

Resources for Including Alt Text

Given the importance of alt text for SEO, assistive technologies, and other scenarios, it may be a good idea to ensure your images have good alt text. If you manage your own website through Squarespace, WordPress, or Wix, here are some resources that may help. Here is an article by Squarespace on how to add alt texts to images (https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542357-Adding-alt-text-to-images). An article from WordPress (https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/image-block/image-caption-alt-text/). An article from Wix (https://support.wix.com/en/article/optimizing-your-images-and-galleries-for-seo-alt-text).

What is a Good Alt Text

This is a studio-style group photo of McKenzie Dental Center employees, posing for Craig Strobeck, the photographer. McKenzie Dental Center is a highly trusted dental clinic providing exceptional dental care in Springfield since 1973, and we are in the process of revamping its web presence. The question, however, is what is a good alt text for this image? Simply stating “group photo” as the alt text would leave out so much useful information. We could consider something more like, “Group photo at McKenzie Dental Center with several dental assistants, studio equipment, and Craig Strobeck taking their photo.” It’s important to keep in mind that Google has stated to avoid keyword stuffing (Google image SEO best practices, Google LLC), as that can be a temptation with alt text.

Next Steps

For many reasons, it may be a good idea to understand how to check for alt attributes and text. Even with the best intentions, mistakes happen, but it’s important to be able to audit and find errors. In the future, we plan to post more insights to help people more easily understand technical auditing.

References

1. 1. Google LLC. Google image SEO best practices.

   https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images#descriptive-alt-text

2. 2. DNH Dynamics, LLC. What is SEO, and How Google Made Optimizing Websites Easier.

   https://www.dnhdynamics.com/blog/what-is-seo-and-how-google-made-optimizing-websites-easier

3. 3. W3Schools. HTML alt Attribute.

   https://www.w3schools.com/TAGS/att_alt.asp

4. 4. DNH Dynamics, LLC. SEO Audit: The Importance of Checking for H1 Heading Tags.

   https://www.dnhdynamics.com/blog/seo-audit-the-importance-of-checking-for-h1-heading-tags

5. 5. WebAIM. The WebAIM Million: The 2026 report on the accessibility of the top 1,000,000 home pages.

   https://webaim.org/projects/million/

6. 6. Google LLC. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide.

   https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide

7. 7. Squarespace, Inc. Adding alt text to images.

   https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/206542357-Adding-alt-text-to-images

8. 8. Automattic, Inc. Add a caption or ALT text to an image.

   https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/image-block/image-caption-alt-text/

9. 9. Wix.com, Inc. Optimizing Your Images and Galleries for SEO (Alt Text).

   https://support.wix.com/en/article/optimizing-your-images-and-galleries-for-seo-alt-text

10. 10. McKenzie Dental Center. Springfield Dentist.

    https://mckenziedentalcenter.com

11. 11. Craig Strobeck Photography. Precision - Vision Photography: Life. Light. Captured.

    https://www.craigsphotographs.com