How to write alt text for your website photos

Alt text is a short description of an image. Screen readers read it out loud, and search engines use it to understand the picture.

How to write it

• Describe what matters in the photo, not every detail.
• Keep it to one sentence when you can.
• Skip "image of" or "photo of". Screen readers already announce that it is an image.
• If the image contains words, include those words.

Examples

• Weak: "Team photo." Better: "Four staff members standing outside the community center."
• Weak: "Logo." Better: "Sunrise Bakery logo."
• Weak: "Event." Better: "Volunteers signing in guests at the spring fundraiser."

When to leave it empty

Decorative images, like a background pattern, should have empty alt text so screen readers skip them. We set this up during the build and check every image before launch.