What is alt text in WordPress? How to add image descriptions on your web page to improve accessibility and website ranking (2024)

Alt text is a short text description of an image published to the internet that can be read aloud by accessibility programs for the blind and visually impaired, including screen readers.

But there's another reason to include alt text: Google and other search engines use alt text to better understand your photos' content, which affects your website's page ranking in search results.

Because WordPress is a popular web site publishing tool, it includes the ability for you to add alt text to images contained in those web pages. The best time to add alt text to an image is when you upload it to WordPress. This way, the image has alt text right from the start, and the text is already there every time you add the image to a web page.

If the image is already in the WordPress media library and you are merely selecting it to insert in the post, there may already be a description in the alt text field in the Attachment Details pane. If the alt text is appropriate, insert it into the post. But if you prefer, you can edit the alt text before adding it.

While alt text is not required, you should strive to add useful, well-crafted alt text to every image you publish via WordPress so all users and search engines can better understand your content.

Here's how to write and add alt text in WordPress.

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How to write good alt text in WordPress

Because alt text describes the image to a visually impaired person, try to make the alt text as useful as possible. That will also help search engines rank your web pages appropriately for relevant keywords. Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Briefly describe the actual content of the image, not what the article or web page is about.
  • Don't begin with a phrase like "Picture of…" or "Photo of…" Just describe the scene.
  • Try to limit your description to fewer than 100 characters including spaces.

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How to add alt text to an image in WordPress

1. While writing a post in WordPress, click "Add Media" at the top of the page.

What is alt text in WordPress? How to add image descriptions on your web page to improve accessibility and website ranking (1)

2. Add the image to your media library, either by browsing or dragging it to the web page.

3. After the is uploaded, the Attachment Details page should appear on the right side of the screen. Enter a description of the image in the Alt Text field.

What is alt text in WordPress? How to add image descriptions on your web page to improve accessibility and website ranking (2)

4. Complete any other entries you need to add, such as the caption and media credit.

5. Click "Insert into post."

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What is alt text in WordPress? How to add image descriptions on your web page to improve accessibility and website ranking (2024)

FAQs

What is alt text in WordPress? How to add image descriptions on your web page to improve accessibility and website ranking? ›

Also called alt tags and alt descriptions, alt text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user's screen. This text helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers and allows search engines to better crawl and rank your website.

How do I add alt text to images in WordPress? ›

If you didn't add alt text from the Media Library, you can do so from within WordPress' Block Editor. Simply select the relevant image and a menu will appear to the right. Here, you can add or edit your image's alt text in a similar fashion to the Media Library.

What is alt text for images accessibility? ›

ALT text refers to invisible description of images which are read aloud to blind users on a screen reader. Adding ALT text allows authors to include images, but still provide the content in an alternative text based format. See example below for what a screen reader experiences when no ALT Text is used.

What is an example of alt text for an image? ›

For example, say a web page contains an image of an upward arrow that links to a table of contents. A text equivalent might be "Go to table of contents.” This would allow a user with a screen reader or other assistive technology to understand the purpose of the image without seeing it.

How do I fix alt text in WordPress? ›

Re-insert the image on the page – so that the HTML code part updates automatically and adds your alt tag. Or copy-paste the alt text from your Media Library to the Image Detail editor on the specific image. Or copy-paste the alt tag from your Media Library to the HTML code (in the “Text” editor) on your page.

How do you write an image description for accessibility? ›

Image Description Guidelines
  1. Decorative images do not need to be described.
  2. Write descriptions with a clear structure.
  3. Write descriptions based on context.
  4. Write for your audience.
  5. Aim for conciseness.
  6. Use present tense / action verbs.
  7. Write out abbreviations and use MathML.
  8. Be objective.

What is the difference between alt text and description in Wordpress? ›

The description field

This field can hold as much information as you want. It can be like the alt text, but longer and can contain keywords, or even metadata from your camera on how you took the photo, copyright etc. You can even add links in the description field.

Do you need both alt text and image description? ›

Image alt text and image descriptions are important for accessibility. They help people who have different accessibility needs – such as vision impairment – understand the purpose of an image without ever seeing it. 2. Image alt text also comes in handy when links break or web pages fail to load.

Does alt text improve accessibility? ›

Alt text is important because it makes images more accessible to people and search engines. Even when they cannot be displayed. If you don't provide appropriate alt text, people using screen readers can't get information from images.

How to add alt text for each chart for accessibility compliance? ›

Add alt text to a chart

Do one of the following: Select Format > Alt Text. Right-click the chart, and select Edit Alt Text.

What is the difference between alt text and image description SEO? ›

Image descriptions provide much more detailed description than alt text, allowing the user to learn more about what is in the image, beyond alt text. Alt text gives the user a short condensed description, while long image descriptions provide explicit detail.

How do you write a description of an image? ›

The three C's of image description:
  1. Concise. Generally, an image description or alternative text uses concise language and does not describe visual elements that are not important to the overall understanding of the image. ...
  2. Complete. Good alt-text describes important visual information as completely as possible. ...
  3. Contextual.

Where is alt text on a website? ›

Chrome™ browser: point to the image with your mouse, right-click and choose Inspect from the quick menu (or use Ctrl-Shift-I on keyboard). A new pane will open at the right of your screen with the HTML code highlighted for that element. You can then view the alt text and other attributes for the image.

How do I get alt text to show? ›

You can mark your visuals as decorative in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. To open the Alt Text pane, do one of the following: Control-click or right-click an image, and then select View Alt Text. Select an image, and then select Picture Format > Alt Text.

Can you add text to an image in WordPress? ›

Click on the image. A toolbar will pop up. Click the Add Text Over Image button, which looks like letter 'A' in a box. Click on the text on the image and write whatever you want!

How do I add text to a featured image box in WordPress? ›

To add the featured image, drag over a Featured Image widget. Then, to add text, use the Caption drop-down and set it to either: Attachment Caption – it will pull the caption from the WordPress Media Library caption box. Custom Caption – you can enter a custom caption.

How do you add alternative text alt text to your images in an image block? ›

In the image block editor, click the Content tab. Go to Image alt text, then enter your alt text in the field.

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