Alt text, short for alternative text, is a tool used by webmasters, search engine optimizers and content marketers to help improve the visibility of webpages in search engines. In essence, it provides a textual representation of an image on the page, which can then be read by search engine spiders. This helps ensure that images are properly indexed and can improve your overall website rankings over time.
What Is Alt Text?
Alt text is a form of HTML coding which allows webmasters to provide a textual description of the contents of an image which can then be read by search engine spiders that crawl webpages. It appears within the img tag as an attribute and generally follows the format:
<img src="image-name" alt="description">Search engine spiders use alt text as part of their indexing algorithm when assessing a webpage’s relevance for particular keywords; this means that using appropriately targeted alt text on your images can result in improved rankings if used correctly.
How Do We Use Alt Text?
When creating alt text it is important to keep two things in mind; keyword relevance and accurate description. By accurately describing your image with the appropriate keywords you will be able to communicate to the search engine spider exactly what’s being shown in the image; this not only helps them understand its context but also contributes towards better indexing overall.
Furthermore, by including relevant words or phrases associated with your target topic it will help ensure that any users searching for those terms will have access to content that presents itself more accurately than others; greatly increasing the chances of user engagement.
It is also important to note that Google considers alt tags as part of its Accessibility requirements and as such websites should strive adhere any minimum standards set out for such tasks order maximize their chances ranking well SERPs.
Websites must also avoid stuffing irrelevant keywords into their img tags as this could negatively impact website performance rather than enhancing it; so always approach such techniques cautiously order get best results!