Add alt text to images
Describe each image in a few words — for accessibility, SEO, and slow connections.
What it means
Alt text is the written description attached to an image tag. Screen readers speak it to blind visitors, Google reads it to understand the image, and browsers show it when an image fails to load.
Why it matters
Missing alt text excludes visually impaired visitors (an accessibility and legal risk), forfeits Google Images traffic, and fails a Core Web Vitals-adjacent audit that customers increasingly check.
How to fix it
- Describe what the image shows in a short phrase: 'Oak dining table with six chairs' — not 'image' or 'photo'.
- Leave alt text empty for purely decorative images (alt="") so screen readers skip them.
- In WordPress/Shopify this is the 'Alt text' field in the image settings — fill it as you upload, then backfill the existing library.
- Prioritise pages that get traffic first; our SEO tab lists exactly which images are missing alt text.
Helpful tools
- Our SEO audit tab
- WAVE accessibility extension
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Related guides
- Write a proper page title: The single most important on-page SEO element — 50–60 characters that sell the click.
- Add a meta description: Your 150-character pitch shown under the title in search results.
- Use exactly one H1 heading: The H1 tells Google and visitors what the page is about — there should be one per page.
- Add Open Graph tags for social sharing: Control the title, description, and preview image shown when your page is shared.