Alt Text

Alt text (alternative text) is an HTML attribute added to image tags that describes the visual content of an image in words. It serves two primary purposes: providing context to search engine crawlers that cannot "see" images, and improving accessibility for users relying on screen readers or when images fail to load. Well-written alt text is concise, descriptive, and contextually relevant.

From an SEO perspective, alt text is an opportunity to include keywords naturally while helping search engines understand what an image depicts. Images with descriptive alt text can rank in Google Image Search, driving additional organic traffic. Decorative images that add no informational value should use an empty alt attribute (`alt=""`) so screen readers skip them.