Images With Empty Alt Text

Description

Images that have an alt attribute, but are missing alt text. Images should have descriptive alternative text about its purpose, which helps the blind and visually impaired, and the search engines understand it and its relevance to the web page.

How to Fix

Review the pages with missing alt text and add alt text to the images.

Detailed Analysis

Certainly! Let's delve into the issue of images with empty alt text in the context of SEO and accessibility.

1. What Causes This Issue

The issue of images having an alt attribute but missing alt text often arises from:

• Negligence or Oversight: Developers or content creators might overlook filling in the alt attribute, especially when focusing on other elements of web design.
• Automated Content Generation: Some content management systems or plugins automatically insert an alt attribute without content, expecting users to fill them manually later.
• Lack of Understanding: There might be a lack of awareness about the importance of alt text, especially among those with less experience in web development or SEO.
• Time Constraints: In a rush to publish content, providing descriptive alt text might be deprioritized.

2. Why It's Important

• Accessibility: Alt text is crucial for web accessibility. Screen readers use alt text to describe images to visually impaired users, allowing them to understand the content and context of images.
• SEO Benefits: Search engines cannot "see" images but rely on alt text to understand what an image represents, which can contribute to better indexing and ranking in search results.
• User Experience: If images fail to load due to connectivity issues or other reasons, alt text provides context to users about what the image is supposed to convey.
• Legal Compliance: In many jurisdictions, websites must comply with accessibility standards (like WCAG), which include providing meaningful alt text.

3. Best Practices to Prevent It

• Descriptive and Contextual: Write alt text that accurately describes the image and its context. It should convey the image's purpose on the page.
• Be Concise: While descriptive, alt text should also be concise. Usually, a brief sentence or phrase suffices.
• Avoid Redundancy: If an image is purely decorative and does not add informative value, it should have an empty alt attribute (alt="") to be ignored by screen readers.
• Regular Audits: Conduct regular checks of your website to ensure all images have appropriate alt text.
• Training and Guidelines: Educate content creators and developers about the importance of alt text and establish guidelines for writing it.

4. Examples of Good and Bad Cases

Bad Example:

• Empty Alt Text: <img src="flower.jpg" alt="">
  The alt attribute is present, but it doesn’t provide any information about the image.

• Vague Description: <img src="flower.jpg" alt="Picture">
  This doesn’t describe the content of the image, making it unhelpful.

Good Example:

• Descriptive Alt Text: <img src="flower.jpg" alt="A close-up of a red rose with dewdrops on its petals">
  This provides a clear and concise description of the image, helping both search engines and visually impaired users understand it.

• Contextual Alt Text: <img src="graph.jpg" alt="Bar chart showing company sales growth from 2018 to 2023">
  This alt text not only describes the image but also its significance in the context of the page content.

By adhering to these best practices, you can enhance both the accessibility and SEO performance of your website, ensuring that all users, regardless of their abilities, can access and understand your content.