Image Alt Text

Google cannot see your images. For all the sophistication behind its search algorithms, when it encounters a photo or graphic on your page it relies entirely on the text you provide to understand what that image contains. That text is called alt text, and most websites either ignore it completely or get it wrong in ways that quietly cost them visibility.

Alt text, short for alternative text, is an HTML attribute added to image tags that describes what an image shows. It was originally designed for accessibility, allowing screen readers to describe images to visually impaired users. That purpose still stands today, but it has also become a meaningful on-page SEO signal that helps Google understand the context of your page more completely.

Good alt text is descriptive, specific, and natural. It tells Google and screen readers exactly what is in the image without forcing keywords into the description unnaturally. "A small business owner reviewing an SEO report on a laptop" is good alt text. "SEO SEO report small business SEO Nepal" is keyword stuffing, and Google treats it accordingly.

Where alt text genuinely moves the needle is in image search. Pages with properly described images appear in Google Image results, which is an entirely separate traffic source most small business owners never think to optimize for. It also reinforces the topical relevance of your page as part of broader on-page SEO, where every element of a page works together to signal what the content is about.