Image Alt Text: How to Write It for SEO and Accessibility

Why alt text matters for a business

The first reason is accessibility. People who are blind or have low vision listen to a page through a screen reader. If a product photo has no description, they hear nothing, or they hear a file name like IMG_2045. A visitor who cannot tell what you sell will simply go to a competitor.

The second reason is unreliable loading. On weak mobile internet, which is a daily reality outside the big cities, images do not always appear, and the alt text is what the visitor sees instead. The third is search: a good description helps a search engine understand the image and the topic of the page, and strong images can bring visitors from image search.

One caveat. Alt text will not lift a site in the rankings on its own. It belongs to the same basic hygiene as headings, body copy, page speed and mobile usability.

How to write good alt text

Imagine explaining the picture to a friend over the phone: short, concrete, to the point. Use a keyword only when it naturally describes the image. A comma-separated list of search queries does not help and looks like spam.

• Say what is in the image: the object, the action, the place.
• For products, name the item, its colour and the angle.
• Keep it to one short sentence.
• Consider context: the same photo may need different wording on a service page and in a blog post.
• If the image contains text, such as a banner, an offer or conditions, repeat that text in the alt or in the page copy.
• Do not start with “image of” or “photo of”; assistive software already announces that it is an image.

Examples for local businesses

The gap between weak and strong descriptions is easy to see in everyday niches.

• Furniture shop. Weak: “cheap furniture tashkent buy”. Strong: “White corner kitchen set with a wood-look countertop”.
• Dental clinic. Weak: “doctor”. Strong: “Dentist showing a patient an implant model”.
• Air conditioner installation. Strong: “Technician mounting a wall-mounted air conditioner in an apartment bedroom”.
• Restaurant. Strong: “Plov cooked in a kazan, seen from above before serving”.
• Online store. Strong: “Black wireless earbuds in an open charging case”.

When alt text should be empty

Not every image needs a description. Background patterns, decorative dividers and icons placed next to a caption that already says everything should get an empty attribute, alt="". Screen readers then skip them instead of distracting the listener.

Note that an empty attribute is not the same as a missing one. Without the attribute, some assistive tools may read out the file name, and crawlers will flag it as an issue.

Common alt text mistakes

Most problems come from rushing during site setup rather than from lack of knowledge.

• The same alt text on every image of a page.
• A file name instead of a description.
• A long string of keywords.
• No alt on the main product or service photos.
• A description that no longer matches the image after it was replaced.
• Russian alt text left on the Uzbek version of a page, or the other way round.

Alt text for large catalogues

Writing every description by hand is unrealistic for a catalogue with hundreds of items, so alt text is often generated from the product name and attributes. That is better than nothing, but check the template: different angles of one product should not carry identical text, and internal codes should not leak into the description.

Write by hand for the images that matter most: the home page, main categories and the pages of your most profitable services. On a bilingual site, prepare Russian and Uzbek descriptions separately rather than translating mechanically.

How to audit and where it fits in your strategy

Run a crawler to list images without alt. Then compare a sample of descriptions with the actual pictures, and spend a few minutes listening to a page in a screen reader. Both checks quickly reveal gaps and absurd template output.

Alt text is a small detail, but it shows how deliberately a site was built. At markdev we treat tasks like this as part of a wider marketing strategy: first work out what actually brings enquiries, then order the fixes by priority. If you would like to know where to start on your own website, we can talk through your task.