Alt-text

​Did you know that Google can't identify images? Not at all! Any images you have online can not be searched for by search engine spiders. Only text can be searched. If you have an image based website, that's a BIG ISSUE! Artists, authors, product sellers... This is where alt-text or alt-tags comes into play.

​What is alt-text you ask? 
It means "alternative text" and it used to describe the appearance or function of an image on a page. It can be used to: 
✔️be read aloud by screen readers for visually impaired readers 
✔️give a description of an image if it fails to load
✔️give bots the ability to index images so they can better understand the content on your site

Why would you use alt-tags? 
➡️It makes your content more accessible to people who are visually impaired and to people who use descriptive text for other reasons. 
➡️If an image fails to load it provides text to describe the image that can not be seen.
➡️It provides context of images to search engine spiders so that can better index your site.

How to add alt-text?
When you are adding an image to your website (this is also true of social media posts) there will be an option, it's often an "advanced" option, where you can add alt-tags. If you're having trouble finding it I would suggest searching "how to add alt-text, alt-tags to (whatever platform you're using)"

What should alt-tags look like?
Just describe your image in a way that people would find meaningful. There's not need for "This is a picture of..."
For the image I used at the top of this post I used the following alt-text. Brightly stylized camera zoom lens Text: Alt-text. Normally I wouldn't use alt-text here because the blog post doesn't rely on it for understanding.

For this image I used ​Alt-text: Gordo an 8 year old Schnauzer-Yorkie, weighing 10lbs & looking up adorably while lying on dark grey couch. Honestly this is just an excuse to share a picture of Gordo, there's no real reason to have it on the page.

If you've got any questions about alt-text, please feel free to contact me. Gordo's not for sale, just in case there's any confusion!