If you want your website to rank highly with Google and be accessible for visually impaired visitors, adding image alt text is key. Alt text provides details about an image’s content while transcribing any useful details (like keywords) displayed within its frame.
Image alt text should be optimized both for SEO and accessibility purposes, here are some best practices:
Keywords
Alt text is the written description of an image on a webpage that’s typically not seen by viewers; however, screen readers and search engines that don’t render images can read and view it instead. As such, alt text plays an essential part of both user experience and SEO for people who rely on assistive devices or can’t load images properly.
Integrating descriptive and relevant keywords into your alt text is a fantastic way to increase SEO for any page it is on, yet be wary not to overdo it – keyword stuffing may prove annoying for users of screen readers as well as make your site unnecessarily difficult for navigation.
An effective image alt text should also be concise and descriptive without repeating what’s already present on the page, such as when an image features a painting or drawing of Steve Jobs; there’s no need to include that information twice (ie both in alt text as well as caption) since doing so would eat up valuable 125 character limit space given by screen readers.
Descriptions
Image alt text serves as an alternate description for images, providing additional information for users who cannot see images or use screen readers, while enabling search engines to index it into search results. Achieving success requires providing this alternative description naturally and helpfully for users.
Your goal should be to provide useful image alt text for users while also including relevant keywords where possible. However, avoid keyword stuffing as this can degrade user experience and even appear spammy; rather focus on providing a truthful account of the image itself before including relevant keywords as they come naturally into place.
As seen below, this image depicts a pair of 14k gold earrings featuring blue beads and tassels attached to a piece of wood. When writing descriptive alt text for images like this one, make sure that all relevant information such as material type, color scheme and subject matter is covered – this can help users locate your product while simultaneously increasing SEO by adding keywords relevant to its subject matter.
Also remember to keep alt text short and straightforward, with no more than 125 characters allowed for any single piece of alt text. Be sure that spelling words correctly is imperative as screen readers will read them aloud.
There are certain situations in which it’s acceptable to be more imaginative with your alt text. For instance, when an image depicts a product and the alt text describes its features, adding its brand name would be appropriate. Conversely, images with visual elements like decorative icons or spacers don’t need an alt text description at all; leaving this field blank would suffice. Just be mindful not to repeat descriptions in both places as this could create duplicate content which search engines may penalize your site for.
As a result, unique alt texts must exist for every image displayed on your site – something repetitive would doomed if repeated two ways would dooming users as well as search engines penalties – creating duplicate content can have serious repercussions when search engines rank your website. Therefore it is imperative that each image on your site has unique alt text for every one displayed.
Context
alt text may be displayed instead of images that cannot load due to limited bandwidth connections; this is often the case for websites designed for older browsers; when this occurs, image alt text provides essential context both to users and search engines alike.
If your site contains images with hyperlinks, make sure they describe these in their alt text to ensure users know if an image fails to load, they know clicking will lead them directly to its linked page. Also include keywords phrases for optimizing image rankings related search queries.
Writing effective alt text requires understanding the purpose of an image. Although using keywords is allowed in your description, be wary of keyword-stuffing – remember, alt text’s purpose is to assist those unable to view your content rather than for SEO reasons. Also keep your alt text under 125 characters since many assistive technologies stop reading it after this point.
Add more context to the description of your image if it’s unique, for instance by providing information such as its material or color if applicable if using an image depicting jewelry; this will make its description more relevant for those searching for “jewelry”.
Add alt text to your images not only benefits those with visual impairments, but it can also increase user engagement on your site and potentially boost organic search engine rankings. Conduct an audit of all the pages and blog posts on your website to see if image alt text optimization needs improvement before watching site traffic increase as a result!
Are you ready to optimize the alt text on your Squarespace image? Reach out to us so we can discuss how we can assist! Our experienced SEO team has extensive knowledge of providing our clients with assistance with optimizing all aspects of their SEO, such as alt text optimization.
Convenience
As soon as you add alt text to your images, search engines are better able to understand what they represent on your website and their significance to Google Image searches, potentially driving additional traffic. Furthermore, adding alt text is quick and simple – simply make sure your descriptions are accurate without overusing keywords (see our tips below for help).
If your image features a pie chart, don’t just write “picture of a pie chart.” Instead, be specific in what the information represented and in what context the pie chart appears. If multiple photos pertain to similar subjects, use one description across them all.
Alt text can help make images that contain lots of data more likely to rank well in search results and drive more visitors to your site.
Image alt text is also necessary due to accessibility laws for many websites. Millions of people rely on screen readers that convert online content — including images — into audio format; without image alt text, these technologies simply read off its file name or simply don’t show any relevant info for these users who rely on such technologies for reading text online. Without providing helpful or pertinent alt text information for these users could cause them to miss out.
Alt text can usually be added in Squarespace’s editor by using either an individual image’s settings button or as part of a gallery block’s settings button. While its placement may differ depending on your template, you’ll likely be able to locate it by rolling over or clicking on an image.
Some templates use image captions as alt text; however, sometimes using your own personalized alt text may be better. Keep it concise and informative by drawing upon findings from keyword research when applicable.
SEO involves many moving parts. Some can feel complex and time consuming; however, adding image alt text to your website is an efficient and fast way of increasing its search engine optimization (SEO).
