Alternative text on images for accessibility and SEO

Alternative text, also known as Alt text, is alternative content that describes what is in your image.

Accessibility

One element that is your responsibility to maintain the accessibility of your platform is adding alternative text to main photos. Alternative text is not visible to visitors to your platform, but it is very useful for people who cannot view images in their browser, such as those using a browser that does not display images, those with a slow internet connection, those using screen readers, and those using audio software.

Cocoriko platforms comply with accessibility standards. Our team is also on the lookout for possible improvements, and if you have any comments, you can send them to us at support@cocoriko.org.

Search engine optimization

Unlike text, search engines cannot access images on a website, which makes the site less optimized for search engines. To improve your platform's search engine ranking, it is a good idea to add alternative text for your images. Search engines select the best image in response to a search query based on the information in the alternative text. This improves your platform's positioning in search engine results pages and displays your platform's images in image search results.

How to create effective alternative text

• The context of the image is essential! Ask yourself what information the image conveys.
• One approach is to imagine that you are describing the image to someone on the phone.
• The text should be short and simple, like a tweet (125 characters maximum).
• Do not start your alt text with "image of" or "photo of." The screen reader will tell the user that it is an image. (source)

The descriptive text should describe the image as simply as possible.

In conclusion

Adding alt text to images doesn't take much time, and the benefits are huge. It's always a good idea to enter the appropriate alt text to improve search engine optimization. In short, alt text is important for the following reasons:

• Increased search traffic to your platform

• Increased number of visitors to your platform

• Information and images accessible to the visually impaired