Knowledgebase

Why Alt Text Matters

Alt text (alternative text) is a key part of making your website accessible and SEO friendly. It provides descriptive information about images for:

• Screen readers used by visually impaired visitors

• Search engines indexing your content

• Improved page relevance in image-based search results

• Faster load fallback if an image doesn’t render

Despite its importance, alt text is often overlooked, especially on media-heavy sites. Neglecting alt text means missing out on opportunities to improve both accessibility and SEO.

Blue Raven’s Alt Text Tool makes adding alt text a breeze. It scans your site and highlights images that are missing alt tags, displaying them in an easy-to-use interface. You can quickly add meaningful descriptions without having to dig through individual pages or product listings.

To use the Alt Text Tool, simply navigate to the tool in Blue Raven. All images missing alt text will be displayed, and you can easily add a description for each image. Once you save the updated text, the image will be removed from the list, and the next image will replace it. For convenience, there’s also an "Edit Image" button that allows you to open the standard WordPress image editor and make changes as needed.

Why You Should Never Forget About Alt Text

Adding alt text isn’t just a good practice it's essential for creating an inclusive, discoverable website. Here’s why you should prioritize it:

• Accessibility: Alt text ensures that visually impaired users can understand the content of your images through screen readers, creating a more inclusive experience.

• SEO Benefits: Search engines rely on alt text to understand the content of your images, which can improve your rankings, especially in image-based searches.

• Fallback: If an image fails to load, the alt text will appear in its place, giving users a better experience and ensuring that your content is still accessible.

Best Practices for Writing Alt Text

To get the most out of your alt text, follow these best practices:

1. Be Descriptive: Accurately describe the content of the image. Think about what the image represents and how it adds value to the page.

2. Keep it Concise: Avoid overloading alt text with excessive detail. Aim for a clear, concise description that conveys the essential information in a few words.

3. Avoid Keyword Stuffing: While SEO is important, don’t stuff alt text with keywords. Keep it natural and relevant to the image.

4. Context Matters: Consider the image’s context on the page. For example, if it’s a product image, include the product’s name and key features. If it’s an informational image, describe what’s being illustrated.

5. Use Proper Punctuation: Alt text should be written like a sentence, with proper grammar and punctuation. This makes it more useful for both screen readers and search engines.

By using Blue Raven’s Alt Text Tool to quickly and easily add alt text to your images, you ensure a more accessible, SEO friendly website while saving time. Don’t overlook this simple yet impactful optimization, your users and search rankings will thank you!

Want to add Schema Markup? Blue Raven also supports Schema Markup – a simple way to explain Schema Markup is that it's a type of code you add to your website to help search engines understand your content better and display it in more useful ways, like rich snippets in search results. (We cover this in the Main Schema section of the plugin.)

Feature Requests

If you have any feature requests that you would like us to consider please log Feature Request We would love to get your input to help make Blue Raven even better!