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Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about alt attributes. The alt attribute is the alternative text or substitute text you see when an image or graphic cannot be displayed on a Web site. As well, even when an image is visible to a site user, the alt text appears when the cursor is placed over an image in some browsers.

When it comes to optimization, does an alt attribute really matter? In and of itself – no. But if you care about user experience, then, yes very much.

Why is alt text important? Because it is text:

• For people using mobiles and other handheld devices
• For people with disabilities using assistive technology, including refreshable Braille displays or screen readers
• For people with low bandwidth connections, who may opt not to load graphics
• For search engines, so they can interpret the meaning of images and graphics using the alt attribute

As you can see, mostly alt text is for people. And, let’s face it, they’re the ones that really matter.

How do you write a good alt attribute? There are two things to keep in mind: your keyword phrases and how the page would look without the images.

Here are the basics:

• For images that are purely decorative (spacer gifs, etc.) leave the alt attribute blank. (No one wants to be greeted with “spacer.gif” 20 times, or, for our visually-challenged friends to have endure their screen reader continually blurting it aloud.)
• For images that contain text (taglines, magazine or newspaper excerpt, etc.) replicate the text in full.
• For images that contain charts or graphs, try to summarize the content. (“Graph showing population by city, across Canada”)
• For a photograph, describe the image (“Photo of my Mum at her birthday party”)

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