There is an increasing movement to make the internet more accessible for all users, including blind or visually impaired users. This has led to increased adoption of image alt tags for greater accessibility.
The image alt tags are often neglected when creating a website. Website owners might believe their images are not necessary to the experience for a visually impaired user, and would rather rely on the written copy they have on the site.
Image alt tags, though, have quite a bit of value for visually impaired users, and a well-written alt tag not only is an opportunity to improve the experience for those users, but also can offer extra opportunity to bolster your search engine rankings.
Using alt tags
Image alt tags feature alt text that gets read aloud by a screen reader, and will also be crawled by search engines to better understand the website. The alt text is not actually part of the image and it is not embedded in the jpg. You can tell if an image has alt text by turning on a screen reader or by “inspecting “t he HTML code on the page to check for assigned alt text.
The way you add alt tags depends on the kind of development platform you’re using. In WordPress, for example, it’s one of the fields available when you add an image to the site. You may need to check with your developer about how to add alt tags, or search Google for the instructions based on your platform.
What’s most important is knowing exactly what to write for your alt text. You should be as specific as possible in your descriptions of the images, and make sure that your description conveys the purpose of the image. Always use proper grammar and language, and write with capital letters and periods.
There are opportunities to implement keywords into image alt text. However, remember that alt text is designed to be red aloud by a screen reader. It’s important that any alt text you use sounds natural and creates a good experience for the user.
It’s a good idea to add alt text to every image on your website. It enhances the experience for your visually impaired users, and is just one more sign to them that your firm cares about working with all clients to deliver outstanding, attentive service and to meet their needs in your work.
To learn more about how to scan your website for missing alt tags and how to implement alt tags throughout your site, contact our professional website developers at Conroy Creative Counsel.