Alt text

Meaning

Alt text is a short written description of an image, used by screen readers and by search engines to understand what the image shows. Google's guidance asks for useful, information-rich text that fits the page, warns that stuffing keywords into alt text can look like spam, and also recommends short descriptive file names such as my-new-black-kitten.jpg instead of IMG00023.JPG. Describe what is actually in the image honestly, which also makes the page more accessible. See also: HTML, Anchor text, and the guide On-Page SEO Basics: Titles, Headings, Content and Links.