Alt Text Helps Others, while raising your SEO

What is Alt Text you ask? The definition of Alt text is unseen alternative text used to describe your image. When loading an image to your website, you have the choice to add a title, caption, alt text, a description, and sometimes a URL.

There are a couple of reasons that alt-text is important. Dearest to my heart is for people who use screen readers. The screen reader adaptive technology is used by people with visual impairments. It converts text-to-speech, as well as identifies images, buttons, links, and other navigational items on the screen. Some may think, “Why should I care? Why should I take the time to do this? What’s in it for me?” Hold on…. my dear readers, I’m not saying you think this way, but as we know, some will!

First, it makes your site accessible to everyone. You are taking the time to upload an image. Why not take a few moments to make it accessible?

* You sell clothing and the image shows a model wearing the listed shirt with a pair of pants. The description only details the shirt. Alt text allows you to add more information. Describe how the two look together. Name the pants and where to find them. You could have another sale, along with many more shares/referrals.

* You post images that have quotes, events and announcements. Screen readers have no idea what is on that image. It may be able to say there is some text, but not the entire script. Social media is inandated with images. Most of the invites and announcements I receive on facebook are in the form of an image. I have to send a message to the organization or person to ask what is announced or I’m invited to.

***It is easy to add alt text. When you upload your announcement or poster, copy and paste the text into the alt-text box.

* Sighted people also utilize voiceover in their multi-tasking lives, listening to documents, emails, pages saved from the internet and social media.

* Your SEO! Search engines recognize alt text, which boosts your rankings. Titles and alt-text aid in pairing a search to your site. Recently, I was searching for something, and the first result was a site that had 22 followers. The site was totally accessible. Note: I was not searching for accessibilities or alt text. The site was at the top because they made the site accessible with alt text. In turn the search engine optimized

more key words within my search to find the match. A person who only had twenty-two followers,, now has twenty-three. That is a smart blogger who is using the tools to attract readers and followers. Update on – three days later has 33 followers.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate you and look forward to chatting again. Feel free to comment and/or contact me. Wishing a day filled with joyful surprises ~ JC

Check out the link below. I highly recommend her blog post, How to Make Your Blog and Social Media More Accessible. I hope that you will also appreciate her welcoming and informational blog. She did an amazing job. Thanks again Vicky!

https://vickyagain.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/how-to-make-your-blog-social-media-more-accessible/