Alt Text

Alt Text bridges the gap between visual and textual content, making images accessible to screen readers, search engines, and AI systems.

What is Alt Text?

HTML Format

<img src="aeo-strategy-guide.jpg" 
     alt="Comprehensive Answer Engine Optimization strategy flowchart">

Primary Purposes

1. Accessibility: Screen readers announce alt text to visually impaired users

2. SEO: Search engines use alt text to understand image content

3. Fallback: Displays when image fails to load

4. Context: Helps AI systems understand visual content

Why Alt Text Matters

Legal Compliance

ADA Requirements:

• Websites must be accessible
• Alt text is required for compliance
• Lawsuits for non-compliance increasing

WCAG Standards: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines mandate alt text.

SEO Benefits

Image Search:

• Images rank in Google Image Search
• Alt text is primary ranking factor
• Drives traffic to site

Overall SEO:

• Contributes to page relevance
• Provides additional keyword context
• Improves content comprehension

AI and AEO

AI System Understanding:

• Helps AI interpret page content
• Provides context for visual elements
• Aids in comprehensive content analysis
• Supports multimodal AI understanding

Future-Proofing: As AI becomes more multimodal, alt text bridges visual and text analysis.

Writing Effective Alt Text

Best Practices

1. Be Descriptive: ✅ “Marketing team analyzing AEO metrics dashboard on laptop”
❌ “Image” or “Photo”

2. Keep It Concise:

• Aim for 125 characters or less
• Screen readers may cut off longer text
• Be efficient with words

3. Include Context: ✅ “Genrank AEO platform dashboard showing citation analytics”
❌ “Dashboard”

4. Don’t Say “Image of”: ✅ “Golden retriever playing in park”
❌ “Image of a golden retriever playing in park”

Screen readers already announce it’s an image.

5. Include Keywords Naturally: ✅ “Answer Engine Optimization workflow diagram with 5 steps”
❌ “AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, AEO strategy, AEO guide”

What to Describe

Informative Images: Describe the information conveyed

Decorative Images: Use empty alt (alt="") to skip announcement

Functional Images: Describe the function (e.g., “Search button”)

Complex Diagrams: Provide brief alt text + longer description nearby

Alt Text by Image Type

Product Images

Include:

• Product name
• Key features visible
• Color, size if relevant

Example:

<img src="laptop.jpg" 
     alt="Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch, Space Gray, 2024 model">

Infographics

Approach: Brief alt text + full text description on page

Example:

<img src="aeo-stats.jpg" 
     alt="AEO adoption statistics 2024: 67% growth year-over-year">

Screenshots

Describe Content:

<img src="dashboard.jpg" 
     alt="Genrank dashboard showing 247 AI citations this month">

Logos

Company Name:

<img src="genrank-logo.svg" alt="Genrank">

Charts and Graphs

Key Data:

<img src="growth-chart.jpg" 
     alt="Line chart showing 300% increase in AI citations over 6 months">

Decorative Images

Empty Alt:

<img src="decorative-border.svg" alt="">

Common Mistakes

Keyword Stuffing

❌ “AEO Answer Engine Optimization GEO Generative Engine Optimization SEO guide”
✅ “Answer Engine Optimization implementation guide”

Generic Descriptions

❌ “Image”, “Picture”, “Photo”
✅ Actual description of content

Repeating Filename

❌ alt="IMG_1234.jpg"
✅ Descriptive text

No Alt Text

❌ Missing alt attribute entirely
✅ Always include alt attribute (empty if decorative)

Overly Long

❌ 300-word description in alt text
✅ Concise description + details on page

Alt Text and SEO

Image Search Rankings

Factors:

• Alt text relevance
• Surrounding text context
• Image filename
• Page topic
• Image quality

Optimization:

• Descriptive alt text
• Relevant file names
• Context in caption/text
• Proper image sizing

Page-Level Impact

SEO Contribution:

• Reinforces page topic
• Provides additional context
• Supports keyword strategy
• Improves comprehension

Technical Implementation

HTML Standards

Basic Image:

<img src="image.jpg" alt="Description">

Responsive Image:

<img src="image.jpg" 
     srcset="image-400.jpg 400w, image-800.jpg 800w"
     alt="Description">

With Figure/Caption:

<figure>
  <img src="chart.jpg" alt="Brief description">
  <figcaption>Detailed caption explaining chart data</figcaption>
</figure>

CMS Implementation

WordPress:

• Alt text field in media library
• Enter description when uploading
• Edit existing images

Shopify:

• Alt text in product image settings
• Bulk edit capabilities

Automation Cautions

AI-Generated Alt Text:

• Can help at scale
• Often generic or inaccurate
• Review and customize
• Don’t fully automate

Auditing Alt Text

Manual Checks

Browser Developer Tools:

• Inspect element
• Check alt attribute
• Verify description quality

SEO Tools

Automated Audits:

• Screaming Frog (missing alt text)
• Ahrefs Site Audit
• SEMrush Site Audit
• WAVE (accessibility checker)

What to Find:

• Missing alt attributes
• Empty alt on important images
• Generic descriptions
• Keyword stuffing

Screen Reader Testing

Test Experience:

• Use screen reader (NVDA, JAWS)
• Navigate through images
• Verify descriptions make sense
• Ensure decorative images skipped

Alt Text Checklist

For Every Image

✅ Alt attribute present
✅ Descriptive and specific
✅ 125 characters or less
✅ Natural keyword usage
✅ No “image of” prefix
✅ Accurate to content
✅ Empty alt for decorative images

Taking Action

To optimize alt text:

1. Audit existing images - Find missing or poor alt text
2. Prioritize important pages - Start with high-traffic pages
3. Write descriptive alt text - Specific, concise descriptions
4. Include context - Relate to page topic
5. Use keywords naturally - Don’t stuff
6. Test with screen readers - Verify accessibility
7. Establish process - Alt text checklist for new images

Alt Text is small but mighty—it makes your site accessible, helps search engines understand visual content, and provides AI systems with crucial context for comprehensive page analysis.