Alt text serves a dual purpose — describing images for visually impaired users relying on screen readers, and helping search engines understand image content they can't directly "see." Writing it well serves both goals simultaneously, without requiring a tradeoff between them.
What Genuinely Good Alt Text Looks Like
Effective alt text describes the image's actual content and function clearly and concisely, as if describing it to someone who can't see it — specific enough to be genuinely useful, without unnecessary padding or keyword stuffing.
Avoiding the Keyword-Stuffing Trap
Alt text mechanically stuffed with keyword variations, rather than genuinely describing the image, fails both purposes simultaneously — it's unhelpful to screen reader users and reads as manipulative rather than genuinely descriptive to search engines evaluating content quality.
When to Use Empty Alt Text Deliberately
Purely decorative images that convey no meaningful content — a decorative border or spacer graphic — should genuinely use empty alt text, signaling to screen readers that the image can be skipped, rather than forcing an unnecessary description onto content-free decoration.
Writing Alt Text for Different Image Types
Product images should describe the specific product clearly, including relevant distinguishing details a shopper would want to know.
Informational diagrams or charts should describe what the visual actually conveys, not just label it generically as "chart" or "diagram."
Photos illustrating an article should describe the specific, relevant content of the photo as it relates to the surrounding text, rather than a generic description.
Avoiding Common Mistakes
- Starting every description with redundant phrases like "image of" or "picture of," which screen readers already announce automatically
- Writing alt text so generic it provides no genuine information ("photo1" or "image")
- Leaving alt text entirely blank on genuinely meaningful, content-bearing images
The Practical Payoff
Well-written alt text genuinely improves accessibility for real users while providing search engines additional legitimate context about your content — a rare case where doing the ethically correct thing and the SEO-beneficial thing are fully aligned.
Audit your existing alt text coverage. SeoWolf's SEO Audit helps identify images missing alt text or using generic, unhelpful descriptions across your site.