Effective alt text (alternative text) is crucial for website accessibility and SEO.
It provides a textual alternative to images for users who cannot see them (e.g., those using screen readers, or if an image fails to load) and helps search engines understand your visual content.
While AltTexty’s AI does a fantastic job generating descriptions, understanding best practices can help you guide the AI and refine its output for optimal results.
What Makes Good Alt Text? Key Principles
- Be Accurate and Descriptive:
- Clearly describe what is visually present in the image. Focus on the important elements, the subject, and any actions taking place.
- AltTexty Helps: Our AI identifies objects, scenes, and actions. You can guide its focus using the “Focus Mode” setting.
- Be Concise:
- Aim for brevity while still conveying the necessary information. Most screen readers will pause or stop after about 125-150 characters, though this isn’t a strict limit if more detail is essential.
- AltTexty Helps: Our AI generally aims for conciseness. You can further guide this with “Custom Instructions” (e.g., “Keep the description under 100 characters”).
- Provide Context:
- Good alt text considers the context of the surrounding content on the page. Why is this image here? What information does it convey relevant to the topic?
- AltTexty Helps: Use the “SEO & Post Context Integration” settings to allow AltTexty to use your post titles or SEO keywords as hints for the AI, leading to more contextually relevant descriptions.
- Include Keywords (Naturally):
- If relevant and natural, incorporate keywords that you want the page to rank for. This helps with image SEO.
- Don’t keyword stuff! The description must still be primarily for human understanding and accessibility.
- AltTexty Helps: By providing “Parent Post SEO Keyphrases” as a context source, you can guide the AI to naturally include relevant terms if they fit the image description.
- Avoid “Image of…”, “Picture of…” etc.:
- Screen readers already announce an element as an “image.” Starting your alt text with these phrases is redundant and unhelpful.
- AltTexty Helps: The AI is generally instructed not to use these phrases. If you see them, it might be an anomaly you can correct or provide feedback on.
- Transcribe Important Text Within Images:
- If an image contains text that is crucial for understanding (and isn’t already present as actual HTML text nearby), that text should be included in the alt text.
- AltTexty Helps: The AI may sometimes identify and transcribe prominent text. You can also use “Custom Instructions” like “Include any visible text from the sign.” However, for large amounts of text, it’s always better to have it as actual text on the page.
- Be Objective (Usually):
- Stick to describing what you see. Avoid making assumptions or interpretations unless they are universally understood from the visual.
- AltTexty Helps: The “Brand Voice” setting can influence objectivity (e.g., “Neutral” or “Journalistic” are more objective than “Friendly”).
- Handle Decorative Images Correctly:
- If an image is purely decorative and provides no informational value (e.g., a background swirl, a stylistic border), it should have an empty alt attribute (
alt=""). This tells screen readers to ignore it. - AltTexty & Decorative Images: AltTexty will try to describe what it sees. If an image is decorative:
- Action: You should manually edit the alt text generated by AltTexty and leave it blank, or use the “Skip” function.
- You can also use the “Skip images with existing AltTexty generation history” filter in Bulk Generate if you’ve manually set decorative images to
alt=""and don’t want AltTexty to process them again.
- If an image is purely decorative and provides no informational value (e.g., a background swirl, a stylistic border), it should have an empty alt attribute (
Using AltTexty’s Features for Best Practices
Here’s how specific AltTexty settings and tools help you achieve high-quality alt text:
- Playground (AltTexty -> Playground):
- Your #1 Tool for Best Practices! Experiment here to see how different settings influence the AI’s output for your images. This helps you understand what instructions lead to accurate, concise, and contextually relevant descriptions.
- Settings (AltTexty -> Settings):
- Brand Voice: Tailor the tone. For factual sites, “Neutral” or “Professional” might be best. For a blog, “Friendly” could work.
- Focus Mode: Direct the AI’s attention. “Detailed Elements” for product images, “Overall Context” for scenic shots.
- Custom Instructions: Provide global rules like “Always describe the main person’s visible emotion” or “If it’s a chart, describe the key trend.”
- SEO & Post Context Integration: Crucial for making alt text relevant to your content. Using “Parent Post Title” or “SEO Keyphrases” helps the AI understand the topic.
- Alt Text Prefix/Suffix: Use sparingly. A common prefix/suffix might detract from the unique description of each image.
- History Page (AltTexty -> History):
- Review & Refine: Don’t just “set it and forget it.” Regularly review AI-generated alt text, especially for important images. Use the History page to make quick edits to ensure accuracy and adherence to best practices.
- Revert: If an AI generation isn’t suitable, revert to the initial version or a previous good one.
- Bulk Generate Filters:
- When using AltTexty -> Bulk Generate, the “Additional Filters” like “Skip images previously generated by AltTexty” can be useful if you’ve already manually reviewed and approved alt text for some images and don’t want them reprocessed by a new bulk job with different settings.
A Note on AI and Human Oversight
While AltTexty’s AI is powerful and designed to follow these best practices, AI is a tool. For critical images or if you have very specific descriptive needs:
- Always review and refine AI-generated alt text where necessary.
- Use your understanding of your audience and the image’s purpose on the page to make the final judgment.
By combining AltTexty’s AI capabilities with your understanding of alt text best practices and your content’s goals, you can create a significantly more accessible and SEO-friendly website with far less manual effort.
If you have questions about applying these best practices with AltTexty, please refer to our other Knowledge Base articles or contact our support team.