Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Is it a legal requirement for a website to have alt tags for all images?
-
Someone told me it is a legal requirement for a website to have alt tags on all of their images. Is this right? Or is this bad for SEO?
-
I think it depends on where the website is - in the UK, it is a requirement to make sure that disabled people have the same or as similar as possible experience online as anyone else. Alt tags make it easier for the blind (amongst other groups of people) to understand the context of a website - a picture tells a thousand words and all that!
I personally think its worth doing (though there are some missing on my site for various reasons) as even if you don't believe any of your visitors are using screen readers I bet some of them actually are.
In the late 90s/early 00s the well known British supermarket, Tesco redeveloped their website to be accessible (not just Alt tags), and saw a staggering increase in sales and conversions as a result. I can't remember the exact figure but it was pretty impressive.
So I guess I'm saying there are other reasons besides SEO and legal to implement accessibility features into your site - fundamental business reasons! Making more money. (though of course the cost must be weighed up against the benefit just like anything else).
-
Most SEOs I know don't know this but yes, some sites are legally required to have alt text. However, they are government sites, those who accept federal dollars or anyone who's tied to the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards under section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, (“508 Standards”).
You can read more about these accessibility requirements here: http://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/proposed-rule/ii-executive-summary
While alt text is not required for a standard commercial or informational business (as far as I know), it does help with long tail traffic, though not always the kind that converts. I would want alt text on a clothing store's images but not necessarily on a page about eye surgery. (People are unlikely to hire a doctor based on a nice photo.)
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Alt Tag for Mobile/Tablet
I have device optimized images for desktop, tablet, and mobile. Should I put the same description, caption and alt tag for each? Not sure if this will hurt me or help?
Image & Video Optimization | | ResmanMarketing0 -
Alt Text Best Practices
I am working on alt texts for my WordPress website. I've done a bit of research and read best practices, but I am a bit confused on how to write some of the alt texts because my entire site includes images. I know this is a big no-no and I am working with my team to get the site SEO-optimized (better text to image ratio). However, in the meantime, I need to make sure that I have some alt texts for my images. Can someone help with the following questions: 1.) I have the same "close" button in 4 locations. Can I use "close" as the alt text four times? Or should I explain where the close button is or what it closes? 2.) If my image is only text and it is more than 125 characters, is this a problem? Should I use longdesc=? If so, how do I input that in a WP site? 3.) If I have my logo in 3 locations, should I differentiate the alt text? 4.) If I have FB icon, do I just state Facebook and don't say icon? 5.) I have some background images and they don't really provide relevancy to my site other than aesthetics so should I not have alt attribute? If so, do I just place alt="" in the alt text field or does it have to be in the code? 6.) In WordPress, do I remove the description under “title,” and just put a description under “alt-text?” 7.) Can I repeat alt texts? For example, I have 4 buy now buttons, should the alt text be “buy now” all 4 times or be specific to what they are buying, such as “Buy now – Teatopia Dream On supplement drink?” 8.) I have 4 nutrition label images so can I just state what each label refers to or is it expected to have a long description with all the text on the label? 9.) I have images for desktop vs. mobile. Can I have similar copy for both. The mobile page is not set-up to index so do I even need alt text for the mobile images? 10.) Can I have characters, such as dashes and commas, in the alt text? Does initial cap matter? 11.) For decorative images or when an alt-text is not needed, do I just place alt=”” in the alt text field in WordPress?
Image & Video Optimization | | JanelleGrkovic0 -
Why are my blog slideshow images not indexed?
I'm managing a design blog hosted on WordPress. Each "design project" article includes a slideshow with additional images (and captions) for the project - these are images and text not found in the article itself. Every slide has the same page path as the article, but a different query param at the end. So if the article is /article the first slide would be /article?slide=1 for example. I'm having two issues: The slideshow images don't seem to be getting indexed. Screaming Frog reports duplicate meta descriptions and title tags for each slideshow page (same meta as article). I want to do what's best overall from an SEO perspective. Having the slideshow images show in Google image search is a must. And having the captions indexed might help too? But I want the Google image results linking to the article and not the individual slideshow pages. And I don't want duplicate meta issues. What's the best thing to do? Submit a sitemap that lists both article and slideshow images? "Rel canonical" the param'd slideshow urls to the base article url (not sure this makes total sense, since slide content is different from the article)? Get rid of slideshow altogether and put images in body? Some combo of these? Hopefully this makes sense. Any thoughts appreciated!
Image & Video Optimization | | theoHP0 -
Would you recommend changing image file names retroactively?
We'll be optimizing file names moving forward, but it hasn't been done in the past. I have probably 1,500 that would need to be changed, so want to make sure it's a valuable use of time/worth the effort. 🙂 Also, has anyone used Media File Renamer for wordpress? Seems this would be a good way to rename files without needing to reupload everything. Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | jennafrye0 -
Will background images get indexed?
Will images, loaded via css class, get indexed? For example something like : style="background-image: url(https://www.mysite.be/content/dam/homepage-mama.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.web.2000.9999.jpeg);"
Image & Video Optimization | | nans0 -
Can i use base64 images (URI) for better SEO performance - faster site loading?
Hi, Do you think the use of image data URI is SEO friendly? I got 20 JPG icons on each site, but use too many HTTP requests. So can i use base64 (URI) images for my small icons? Thank you for answer!
Image & Video Optimization | | Termex0 -
Google maps displaying wrong image
Hi, I couldn't figure this out, how do i change image that shows up on the right side for maps results, do i change it in my Google places account ?(which i did and and its a first one) or in Google plus, i just cant get it? Thanks for help.
Image & Video Optimization | | Davidmez0 -
Dynamic image serving SEO
We often use images from a dynamic image server, to cater for image asset management, multiple sizes etc. Similar to Adobe's Scene7, although that came out after we chose our product. So widgets.com may have all its images with a URL like myimageserver.com?src=widgets/catalogue/productname.jpg;width=100;height=100;angle=90, instead of widgets.com/images/productname.jpg. A potential client wants to capitalise on traffic from Google image search. We could build an image sitemap, listing the images on each page. What should we place in the image:loc field? The code: myimageserver.com?src=widgets/catalogue/productname.jpg;width=100;height=100;angle=90 Apparently we have to verify the hosting site in Webmaster Tools, but I can't see where. I have a single Webmaster Tools account, where most of our sites are defined. Would I have to verify it for each site using the dynamic imaging program? Love to hear from anyone with solutions for getting images indexed when they are hosted at third-party dynamic imaging programs.
Image & Video Optimization | | ozgeekmum0