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SEO4 min read
Alt text is for people first, crawlers second
Good alt text describes the image for someone who can't see it. The search benefit is a side effect of doing that properly.
Alt text written for a crawler tends to read like one: a list of keywords in quotation marks. Alt text written for a person describes what the image is actually doing on the page.
Describe the job of the image
"Blue running shoe, side view, sole visible" beats "best running shoes Mumbai buy online" for everyone - a screen-reader user understands what they're being shown, and a search engine gets the same clarity it would from good filename hygiene.
- If the image carries information, say what it says
- If it's decorative, leave the alt attribute empty
- Never repeat the caption word for word
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