How to write good alt text

Yes, alt text should include SEO keywords when possible. No, that’s not actually what it’s for.

image from undraw

Writing good alt text is hard to master, but an absolutely crucial skill as a developer, designer, marketer or online writer: this is the essential tool that makes your content comprehensible and accessible to all readers, and that is its primary and most important function.

Lately especially, however, alt text has become either something that’s completely ignored or done “because we have to”, or just includes keywords for SEO purposes. There are many cases where images are not visible to the reader, and by the way, not all of them are visually impaired — some people disable automatic loading of pictures, some people have slow internet speeds and pictures just won’t load, and honestly, it’s just your responsibility as a developer or content creator.

Let’s say you believe my reasons to use alt text. What now?

There’s stuff that you should absolutely not do, and stuff you could do to make your content as accessible as possible.

Don’t just stuff your image with keywords

Let’s take this gorgeous image as an example. There’s a big difference between an…