CrawlCheck

Glossary · Indexing and discovery

alt text

The text alternative for an image, read by screen readers and by any client that does not render images. Its absence is an accessibility failure; its presence is not evidence of a photograph, because a placeholder can carry alt text too.

What alt text means

The text alternative for an image, read by screen readers and by any client that does not render images. Its absence is an accessibility failure; its presence is not evidence of a photograph, because a placeholder can carry alt text too. Decorative images should carry an empty alt rather than none.

Where alt text comes up on this site

Terms this definition uses

Place

Related terms in Indexing and discovery

Whether a page can be found and kept, separately from whether it can be fetched.

index coverage · canonical · noindex · X-Robots-Tag · orphan page · E-E-A-T · E-E-A-T proxies · topical authority · Soft 404 · case consistency · accessibility structure · landmark region · accessible name · skip link · main landmark · alt attribute · form control name · duplicate id · IndexNow · faceted navigation · thin content · duplicate content · near-duplicate · boilerplate · MinHash · shingle · dead anchor · placeholder content · image placeholder · EXIF

Questions about alt text

What is alt text?

The text alternative for an image, read by screen readers and by any client that does not render images. Its absence is an accessibility failure; its presence is not evidence of a photograph, because a placeholder can carry alt text too.

What does alt text not show or guarantee?

The text alternative for an image, read by screen readers and by any client that does not render images. Its absence is an accessibility failure; its presence is not evidence of a photograph, because a placeholder can carry alt text too. Decorative images should carry an empty alt rather than none.

Which area of the glossary does alt text belong to?

Indexing and discovery: Whether a page can be found and kept, separately from whether it can be fetched.

← image placeholder  ·  EXIF →

See it in the full glossary · 668 terms across 19 areas.