Image Alt Text: The SEO Fix You're Probably Ignoring

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We recently audited a swimming school website. Out of 364 images across 14 pages, 266 had no alt text at all. That's 73% of their images that Google literally cannot see.

This is one of the most common -- and most fixable -- SEO problems we find.

What Is Alt Text?

Alt text (alternative text) is a short description of an image in your website's code. It looks like this:

```html ```

When the alt text is empty (`alt=""`) or missing entirely, Google has no idea what the image shows. Your image is invisible to search engines.

Why Alt Text Matters for SEO

1. Google Image Search

Google Images is the second largest search engine in the world. Without alt text, your images won't appear there. That's free traffic you're missing.

2. Context for Google

Alt text helps Google understand what your page is about. An image of a baby swimming lesson with proper alt text reinforces that the page is about baby swimming -- strengthening your keyword relevance.

3. Accessibility (It's the Law)

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 requires websites to be accessible. Screen readers use alt text to describe images to visually impaired users. Empty alt text means those users get nothing.

4. Broken Image Fallback

When an image fails to load (slow connection, server error), the alt text is displayed instead. It tells the visitor what they're missing.

How to Write Good Alt Text

Bad examples:

`alt=""` (empty -- Google sees nothing)

`alt="IMG_4521.jpg"` (filename, not description)

`alt="swimming swimming lessons baby swimming pool water"` (keyword stuffing)

`alt="image"` (useless)

Good examples:

`alt="Baby enjoying their first swimming lesson in a heated pool"`

`alt="Example Swim School instructor teaching water confidence to a toddler"`

`alt="Children's swimming class in Leeds with qualified STA teacher"`

Rules: 1. Describe what's in the image, specifically 2. Include relevant keywords naturally (don't force them) 3. Keep it under 125 characters 4. Don't start with "Image of" or "Photo of" -- screen readers already say "image" 5. Decorative images (borders, spacers) can have `alt=""` intentionally

How to Fix It on WordPress

1. Go to Media > Library 2. Click on any image 3. Fill in the "Alternative Text" field 4. Save

For images already placed in pages/posts, you may need to edit the page and click on each image to update its alt text.

How Long Does It Take?

Honestly? It's tedious. If you have 200+ images, budget 2-3 hours. But it's one of the highest-impact SEO fixes you can make, and once it's done, just make sure every new image gets alt text going forward.

We Flag Every Missing Alt Tag

Every SEO Rank Masters audit counts your images and tells you exactly how many have missing or empty alt text. We give you the percentage and flag it by severity.

In our experience, the average small business website has 40-60% of images without alt text. Fixing this alone can noticeably improve your search visibility.

*Find out how many of your images Google can't see. [Get your SEO audit](https://seorankmasters.com) -- from GBP 29.*