# Image ALT texts

> ALT text is the alt attribute of an image: a short written description that screen readers read aloud and search engines use to understand the picture.

- **Check ID:** S11
- **Area:** [SEO](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo)
- **Tool:** [SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit)
- **Page:** https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/image-alt-texts

## Why it matters

Search engines cannot 'see' images and rely on ALT text for indexing. ALT texts are also crucial for web accessibility and are displayed when an image fails to load.

## In practice

Wikipedia consistently uses descriptive ALT texts for all images, e.g. alt='Bratislava Castle at sunset'. E-shops without ALT texts miss out on traffic from Google Images, which can account for 10-20% of visits.

## How be1st checks it

Checks whether all images on the page have an alt attribute. ALT text describes the content of an image for search engines and assistive technologies (screen readers). An empty alt='' is fine for decorative images; the check only reports images that have no alt attribute at all.

[SEO + Security + Performance](https://be1st.ai/tools/ssp-audit), SEO tab.

Every check ends as: Pass, Warning, Fail.

## Sources

- [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide) (Google Search Central)
- [Lighthouse SEO Audits](https://web.dev/articles/pass-lighthouse-seo-audit) (web.dev)

## Related terms

- [Internal links](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/internal-links): Internal links point from one page to other pages of the same website. They help visitors and crawlers find content and spread authority across the site.
- [External links](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/external-links): External links point from your page to other websites. Links to trustworthy sources back up the claims in your text and let readers check them.
- [Anchor text quality](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/anchor-text-quality): Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. Good anchor text says where the link leads, unlike generic phrases such as 'click here' or 'more'.
- [Clean URLs](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/clean-urls): A clean URL is a short, readable web address made of words, without long query strings, session IDs, encoded spaces or hashbangs.
- [HTML lang attribute](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/html-lang-attribute): The lang attribute on the `<html>` element declares the language of a page. Screen readers, translation tools and search engines rely on it.
- [Favicon](https://be1st.ai/glossary/seo/favicon): A favicon is the small icon of a website that browsers show in tabs and bookmarks and Google shows next to the site name in results.