When images have no alternative text, screen reader users hear a filename or nothing useful. When alt is stuffed with keywords, they hear spam. Good alt text sits in the middle: short, honest, and tied to the job the image does on the page.
Informative versus decorative
- Informative: product photos, charts, staff portraits that identify a person, icons that are the only label for an action
- Decorative: pure visual dividers, stock mood images that repeat nearby text, spacer graphics
Writing patterns that work
- Product page: "Blue ceramic mug, 300 ml, matte finish"
- Team page: "Dana Levi, clinic manager"
- Chart: summarize the takeaway, then offer a data table nearby when possible
- Linked logo: the destination name, not "logo"
CMS habits that break alt
Auto-filled filenames, bulk imports without review, background images used for real content, and text baked into pictures of promotions with no HTML equivalent.
A weekly cleanup
Walk the top ten landing pages, export images missing alt, and fix them in the CMS. Re-check after marketing uploads a new campaign folder.