ALT Attribute: 4 Little-Known Reasons Why You Should Use It

The ALT (Alternative Text) tag is text that describes an image on a web page through the HTML programming language . This attribute is placed directly in the image tag and is used so that, if the latter cannot be displayed for any reason, it can inform what it is about through this alternative text. The ALT tag, however, is not a visible element for the Internet user.

Now, why is it so important to use the ALT tag?
Here are our 4 reasons :

1. We make the work of screen readers easier.
Millions of people with some type of visual problem consume online content through screen readers. These tools work by transferring Special Data web content, including images, to audio format. If the website in question does not have the ALT tag incorporated, we make it impossible for these readers to communicate the content of the image to the user , which is often relevant to understanding the content text. They usually skip these images, or worse, read long and totally useless image file names that cause frustration for our user.

Google talks about the importance of this issue in its help manual .

2. ALT tags help Google understand the theme of your page or blog.
Google positions our website by visiting it sporadically and, among other things, quickly classifying the theme of our site. And how do you classify the theme? Agilely detecting keywords and their context. I'll give you an example to understand this: if you read several keywords such as rose, daisy, petunia and orchid, you will know that we are talking about types of flowers and you will classify it in your internal index as "web related to flower themes."

And what does this have to do with the ALT tag? Because sometimes, context and keywords are encased in images that Google can't read. The use of alternative text helps Google understand these images, which leads to a better understanding of your pages and their content, and that ultimately contributes to better organic positioning of your website.

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Special Data