Why it matters for a small business site
Blind and partially sighted visitors using screen readers hear it in place of the picture, it shows if an image fails to load, and it helps Google understand what an image shows.
How to check yours
- Right-click an image and choose Inspect, then look for alt="…" on the img tag.
- Run a free checker such as WAVE or the Lighthouse panel in Chrome; both list images without alt text.
- Read each alt text without looking at the image: would it tell someone what they’re missing?
What good looks like
A plain description of what the image shows and why it’s there, usually one short sentence (“Two baristas pouring latte art at our counter”). Purely decorative images get an empty alt (alt="") so screen readers skip them, and a linked image, like a logo, says where it goes.
Common mistakes
- Leaving it out, so a screen reader may read out the file name instead.
- Starting with “Image of…”. Screen readers already announce that it’s an image.
- Stuffing in keywords (“plumber London cheap plumber”).
- Putting important words, like prices or opening hours, only inside an image.