What is an alt text or alt attribute?

An alt text is a label that you give to an image. Search engines primarily read text, so it is very important to always give your images an alt text. That way the search engines know what the image is for and you increase the chances of the image being found in Google. So it has a positive influence on SEO.

The alt text should always accompany an image. It is behind the scenes in the html of the image (in the img tag). This allows the search engines to read the alt text.

By the way, the official name in html is alt attribute. Funny detail: many people mistakenly call the alt text the alt tag. This is incorrect because it is not a tag, but an attribute of the img tag.

The alt text is visible when an image does not load quickly. In that case, the website visitor at least already knows what image will appear (or should have appeared if the image does not load at all).

Search engine optimization with alt text

When optimizing your pages for search engines, you should definitely not forget alt text. Initially, it is important that the alt text describe in a specific way what the image shows.

There are three reasons for this. If the image does not load, the visitor will know what image should have been there. In addition, your image is more likely to be found in the search engines. Finally, it is convenient for the blind and visually impaired. This is because they use screen readers that read the alt text of images aloud.

In addition to a good description of what is happening in the image, it also helps to include the keywords of the page. Do this only if it is relevant to the image in question, though.

Alt text in HubSpot

HubSpot's CMS makes it easy to assign alt text to images. To do so, follow these steps:

• Click on an image.
• A menu appears showing the image proportions, quick sizes, alignment and edit image.
• Click on options.
• Fill in your alt text at 'image description'.
• Click on 'OK' at the bottom of the menu.

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