Alt Text
Alt text refers to Alternative Text for Images. The image alt text helps the user understand what’s in the image. Users using a screen-reader to access a website can rely on Alt Text for this.
A screen-reader is an assistive device for people with visual impairments to access web documents. A screen reader reads aloud computer documents so that the person reading them can hear what’s being said.
Google Can Read More Than 16 Words in an Image Alt text?
A user asked,
” Google stated that your alt text could only contain 16 words. The question is: Does Google read the rest of it? And what does this all mean for usability?”
Mueller responded:
“You can add a lot of information to an image’s alt text if it’s relevant for that image.”
16 Word Alt Text Limit?
The questioner referred to one of common alt text queries that Google limit of 16 characters that can be used as alt text. This idea may have come from an SEO test, which sought to identify text within an image alt text. This test used non-existent keywords (essentially gibberish) and found that Google couldn’t find images if it used more than 16 words to search.
Using gibberish is a common way to test Google to get faulty “SEO tests” results. Google is not meant to rank gibberish but to rank words. For gibberish, it could very well be that Google will use the regular algorithm to find gibberish (since it doesn’t apply) and then match query to page.
This is not how Google search usually works. It is not clear if this mistake affected the SEO test. It is important to note that the 16-word limit was not set by Google but was determined from an SEO test.
Mueller explains how to use this attribute
Mueller said,
“The alt text is used to help understand the image. If someone searches in Google Images to find something that matches the alt text, we can use this information to determine if your image is relevant to that page’s alt text.
This is the primary use of this attribute. It is also used as part of the page. However, this attribute is usually already visible on a page, and it’s not crucial to the page.
I would use it to apply to the image, and I would use Google Images to help me understand that image better.
What Words Should You Use in Alt Text
Mueller continued:
“Or, rather, it’s more like what this image signifies for your page. If you have a photo of a beach, you can use alt text to say, “Oh, this is a Beach.”
You could also say that this is the beach right in front of our hotel or that this is where we took a photograph when we were cleaning up chemicals.
These intents can be very different so people might search on Google Images for more information in different ways. It makes sense to give context.”
Use alt text to provide context
John Mueller encouraged publishers and SEOs to use words that give context to images within web pages so that when someone using a screen reader sees the image, the context of how it fits in the content of the page will be clearer.
If you are unsure what to write in the alt text for an image, it is good to think about how someone with a visual impairment would describe the image. Then use that description in the alt text.
