An SEO glossary of terms every marketer should know in 2026
A practical, current glossary covering the essential SEO terminology every marketer should be comfortable with, from foundational concepts to 2026-specific terms.
6 min read
Alt text serves two audiences simultaneously: screen reader users who rely on it to understand an image they cannot see, and search engines that use it as a signal for image relevance and, increasingly, for broader page and multimodal content understanding. Well-written alt text serves both audiences with the exact same sentence.
What makes alt text genuinely good
It describes what the image actually shows and, where relevant, why it matters in context — concisely, naturally, and without keyword stuffing. 'A red leather handbag with gold hardware displayed against a white background' serves a screen reader user well and gives a search engine genuine, specific information.
- Describe the image's actual visible content specifically.
- Include context relevant to the image's purpose on the page, where genuinely helpful.
- Keep it reasonably concise — long, rambling alt text can be as unhelpful as none at all.
- Avoid starting with 'image of' or 'picture of' — screen readers already announce that it is an image.
Common mistakes on both ends
- Keyword stuffing: repeating a target phrase multiple times rather than describing the image naturally.
- Leaving alt text blank on genuinely informative images, which fails screen reader users entirely.
- Writing generic, unhelpful alt text like 'image1' or 'photo' that describes nothing.
- Marking decorative images (background textures, dividers) with descriptive alt text they do not need, when an empty alt="" is correct instead.
There is no real tension between writing alt text for accessibility and writing it for SEO — the same honest, specific description serves both purposes equally well.
When to use an empty alt attribute deliberately
Purely decorative images that convey no information — a repeating background pattern, a visual divider — should use alt="" (empty, but present), which tells a screen reader to skip announcing the image entirely, rather than interrupting the reading experience with something meaningless.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an ideal alt text length?
No strict rule, but concise and specific — typically under 125 characters — tends to work best for screen reader experience, while still conveying genuine, useful information.
Should product images include the product name in alt text?
Yes, generally — including the specific product name alongside a genuine visual description is both natural and helpful for both audiences.
Does alt text on every single image genuinely matter for SEO?
Its impact varies by image relevance and context — a product's main image benefits more than a minor decorative icon, but writing it consistently and correctly across the site is still good, low-cost practice overall.
If you want your site's images audited for both accessibility and SEO alt text quality, talk to our team.
The takeaway
Read your alt text aloud as if you were a screen reader user who cannot see the image at all — if it does not genuinely convey the image's content and purpose, rewrite it.
Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.
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