The importance of Alt Text optimization for web accessibility

To optimize Alt Text, ensuring that each image on your website has a concise and accurate description of what the image depicts, while also including relevant keywords to help improve the image’s search engine optimization (SEO), is key to success. This can help improve the accessibility of your website for users who rely on screen readers, while also improving the overall user experience and search engine rankings.

Alt Text optimization is an important aspect of web accessibility and should be considered as part of a broader web accessibility strategy.

Ensuring Alt Text for your website

Making sure that all your non-text elements have Alt Text for users that cannot see or access these elements is vital for maintaining web accessibility and meeting compliance requirements.

But missing some elements on a large and complex website (even on a small one!) can happen to the best of us, which is why developing a thorough methodology for Alt Text optimization is so important. By following these steps you can rest assured you will never miss a non-text element for Alt Text descriptions on your website:

1. Frequently audit your website. Start by reviewing your website to identify all non-text elements, including images, videos, charts, and graphs. Make a list of all non-text elements that do not have Alt Text.
2. Write descriptive Alt Text. For each non-text element, write a concise and accurate description of the image or other content. The Alt Text should provide enough information for a visually impaired user to understand the content of the image. Adding relevant keywords for SEO is a plus. For a guide on how to write good Alt Text, click here.
3. Add Alt Text to your website. Manually add the Alt Text description to the image or other non-text element’s HTML tag, or you can use a content management system (CMS) that allows you to add Alt Text with a visual editor.
4. Test your website. After adding your concise Alt Text descriptions, test your website to ensure that the Alt Text is being read correctly by screen readers and other assistive technologies. You can use automated testing tools or manual testing methods to verify the accessibility of your website.

Need help with Alt Text?

Sounds too complicated? Perhaps you don’t have the time or manpower to execute these steps meticulously? We recommend you use the services of a web accessibility solution provider, like EqualWeb. EqualWeb has a big staff and teams of web accessibility experts who do this for a living. Outsourcing the remediation of your website is a great solution for covering all accessibility aspects and avoiding costly lawsuits and ADA violations.

Don’t forget that finetuning your website according to web accessibility standards comes with great benefits, such as increased traffic, more customers, a friendlier user experience, and better SEO rankings. If this boosts your bottom line, why not add it as a feature to your business?

To schedule a meeting with a web accessibility expert, click here, no strings attached.