Alt tags allow you to add more information to your images on a WordPress website. In an alt tag, you describe the image. This is useful for visitors who cannot see the image. A good alt tag can also contribute to SEO. Here you can read all about it.
Alt tags: What is it?
Alt tag stands for alternative text or alt attribute . This is a text that describes an image. You can come up with this text yourself and add it when you place an image on your web page, for example. A visitor sees the alt tag when the image is not visible. This is the case, for example, if the image does not want to load. The visitor still has a good idea of the content of the image through the alt text.
Influence alt tags on SEO
So you can use alt tags to make your website more user-friendly if an image won’t load. Additionally, it is smart to use alt tags to optimize SEO. SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization. In other words, the optimization of your web page in the search engine results. A good and relevant alt tag can ensure that your page ends up higher in Google.
A search engine has a harder time evaluating images than text. Therefore, it is important to describe the image as well as possible. You are helping the search engine to better categorize images and you are helping yourself because your web page will rank higher in the search engine.
Is the image you are using more for decoration? Then an alt tag is less relevant. Visitors who have searched for the alt tag in the search engine will then probably not have much use for that web page.
Example alt tag
So creating an alt tag is very important, but what do good alt tags look like? To create a good and relevant alt tag, there are a few handy tricks. The goal is to describe the image as specifically as possible. For example, do you have a picture of different colored tulips in a vase? Then don’t write down: ‘flowers’ or ‘flowers in vase’. This is not specific enough. Better alternatives would be:
- ‘Yellow and red tulips in a vase’
- ‘Colored tulips in glass vase’
- ‘Yellow and red tulips in a glass vase’
By reading the alt tag, you should be able to picture yourself exactly what the image looks like. By naming that the flowers are tulips, what colors they are, and what kind of vase they are in, the alt tag becomes much more specific. Don’t use random words or phrases; Google may mark them as spam and you’ll have no use for them at all.
Conclusion
An alt tag or alt attribute allows you to describe the alternative text of an image on a web page. This is relevant to visitors and can improve SEO. Think of alt tags that are relevant to the image and specific enough.