Alt text is one of those small website habits that quietly pays off twice: it helps people who use screen readers understand your images, and it helps Google understand them too. It takes about two minutes per image, costs nothing, and most business sites still get it wrong or skip it entirely. This guide explains what alt text is, how to write it so it serves both accessibility and image search, how it differs from a file name, and the one case where you should leave it blank on purpose. Everything here reflects current best practice as of November 2026.
What alt text actually is
Alt text (short for “alternative text”) is a short written description attached to an image in your website’s code. It is not visible on the page under normal conditions. Instead, it does its work in two situations: when a screen reader reads your page aloud to a visitor who is blind or low vision, and when an image fails to load, so the browser shows the description in its place. Search engines read it too, which is how it doubles as a quiet SEO signal. In WordPress and most site builders, you add it in a small field labeled “Alt text” or “Alternative text” whenever you insert or edit an image.
Why it helps SEO and accessibility at the same time
These two goals are not in tension; they point the same direction. A screen reader user and a search engine both need words to understand a picture, because neither can “see” it. When you describe an image accurately and naturally, you serve the person and the algorithm in one stroke. For accessibility, good alt text is often a legal and ethical expectation, part of the broader topic covered in our guide to website accessibility for small businesses. For SEO, it is how your photos can appear in Google Images, which for a local business often means your real work showing up when someone searches for what you do.
How to write alt text that works
Good alt text is specific, concise, and natural. Aim for a short sentence or phrase, usually under about 125 characters, that describes what the image shows and why it is there. Skip “image of” or “picture of,” because screen readers already announce that it is an image. Where it fits honestly, include the kind of descriptive detail a customer might search for, but never stuff keywords.
| Image | Weak alt text | Strong alt text |
|---|---|---|
| A finished patio | patio | Newly installed gray paver patio with a built-in fire pit in a backyard |
| Your team photo | IMG_4821 | Three uniformed technicians standing in front of a company service van |
| A haircut result | haircut best salon near me cheap | Short layered bob haircut with balayage highlights, side profile |
| Your logo | logo | Vallahub logo |
Notice the third row: cramming in “best salon near me cheap” is keyword stuffing, which reads terribly aloud and can hurt rather than help. Describe the image honestly, and the relevant words usually appear on their own.
Alt text versus file name: two different things
People often confuse these. The file name is the name of the image file itself, like photo.jpg, and it is set before you upload. Alt text is the description you add inside your site after uploading. Both matter, and the best practice is to handle both: rename files to something descriptive before uploading (paver-patio-fire-pit.jpg instead of IMG_4821.jpg), then write proper alt text once the image is in place. The file name gives a first hint; the alt text does the real describing.
When an image should have empty alt text
Here is the nuance most guides miss: sometimes the correct alt text is none at all. If an image is purely decorative and adds no information, a background flourish, a divider line, a repeated icon that sits next to text already saying the same thing, it should have an empty alt attribute (written as alt=”” in the code). This tells screen readers to skip it, so the visitor is not interrupted by “decorative swirl, decorative swirl” on every page. The rule of thumb: if removing the image would lose no meaning, give it empty alt text. If the image carries information, describe it.
A two-minute workflow you can actually keep
You do not need to overhaul your whole site at once. Build the habit going forward and fix the important images over time.
- Before uploading, rename the file to describe it in plain words with hyphens between them.
- After inserting the image, find the Alt text field in your editor.
- Write one honest sentence describing what the image shows.
- Decide if the image is informative or decorative; leave alt empty only if it is purely decorative.
- Skip “image of” and resist adding extra keywords.
- For a backlog, start with your most important pages: home, services, and portfolio or gallery.
Frequently asked questions
How long should alt text be?
Keep it short, usually a phrase or single sentence under about 125 characters. Screen readers read the whole thing aloud, so a long paragraph becomes tedious. Describe the essential content and stop; if an image truly needs a long explanation, put that in the surrounding text instead.
Does alt text really affect my Google ranking?
It is a modest but real signal, mainly for Google Images and for giving context to the page. It will not single-handedly move you up the results, but combined with good content and accurate file names it helps your photos get found, which for a local business can mean real visibility.
What is the difference between alt text and a caption?
A caption is visible text displayed near the image for everyone to read. Alt text is hidden and serves screen readers and search engines. They can say different things: a caption might be a short label, while the alt text fully describes the image for someone who cannot see it.
Do I need alt text on every single image?
Every informative image, yes. Purely decorative images should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them. The goal is meaning, not volume: describe what matters and quietly pass over what does not.
My site has hundreds of images with no alt text. Where do I start?
Start with your highest-value pages and most important photos, such as services, portfolio, and the homepage, then work backward as time allows. Perfect coverage is a nice goal, but your most-visited and most-descriptive images deliver most of the benefit first.
Small habits like alt text are part of building a website that is accessible, findable, and genuinely professional. If you would rather have these details handled correctly as part of your site, get started here or explore our website services.