What is Image Alt Text?
Alt text describes images for screen readers and when images don’t load. Learn why it matters for accessibility and SEO and how to write good alt text.
Image alt text (the alt attribute on an <img> tag) is a short description of the image. It’s read by screen readers for people who can’t see the image, shown when the image fails to load, and used by search engines to understand image content and context. Good alt text supports both accessibility and SEO.
Why it matters
- Accessibility — Screen reader users rely on alt text to know what the image shows. Missing or poor alt text excludes them.
- SEO — Google uses alt text (and surrounding content) to interpret images. Relevant alt text can help images appear in image search and support page relevance.
- Fallback — When images are blocked or broken, alt text is the fallback content.
How to write it
- Be concise — Usually a short phrase or sentence; avoid long paragraphs.
- Describe the image — Say what’s in it and why it matters in context, not “image of” or “picture of” unless needed.
- Decorative images — Use
alt=""so screen readers skip them; don’t omit the attribute.
Common issues
- Missing — No
altattribute; accessibility and SEO lose context. - Generic or keyword-stuffed — “image” or long keyword lists don’t help users or search engines.
- Redundant — Repeating the adjacent caption or heading word-for-word.
How BearAudit checks it
BearAudit checks each crawled page for images and reports missing or empty alt text. We flag pages and URLs so you can add or improve alt text for accessibility and image SEO.