How To Write Good Alt Text
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What alt text is for
Alt text is the invisible label that makes images accessible to screen readers, searchable to Google, and visible when the image fails to load. Good alt text is specific and functional; bad alt text is either missing, overly verbose, or just repeats the filename. This guide covers what alt text should and shouldn’t say, when images are decorative (empty alt is correct), alt text for complex graphics and infographics, SEO implications, WCAG requirements, and common patterns that get flagged by accessibility audits.
The functional-equivalent rule
Alt text serves three audiences:
Decorative images — empty alt
Example: an image of a chef cooking, used in an article about recipes.
Alt text length
A single alt attribute can’t describe a bar chart effectively. Use layered text:
Complex images — charts, diagrams, infographics
Describe the destination/action, not the icon itself.
Alt text for images that are links
If an image is mostly text (a quote card, a promo graphic), the alt text should repeat the text.
Images with text
If the surrounding text already names the image, alt text should stay brief. Example:
Redundancy — don’t repeat context
Screen readers already announce that it’s an image. “Image of a dog” becomes “Image, image of a dog”.
Never start with “Image of” or “Picture of”
Skip the prefix. Start with the subject: “Golden retriever catching a frisbee”.
SEO implications
Google uses alt text for image search ranking and as a content signal. Keyword-stuffed alt text ranks worse, not better.