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unah64949675
Known Participant
September 7, 2021
Answered

Alt text

  • September 7, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1142 views

Hi there, 

I always add Alt text through the Properties panel when I add an image. Please can anyone advise if adding the text of that particular page to the Alt box would work, it seems to easily accept it, only see a few words when I test it so maybe only a short description would show up? 

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Jon Fritz

    The alt text of an image only shows if the image doesn't download for some reason, or if the viewer is using a screen reader. It should only be a short description of the image itself. It is not used by search engine crawlers for much of anything, so putting more than a short description of the image into the alt attribute is pretty much pointless.

    2 replies

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 7, 2021

    To add to Jon's sage advice, ALT text is ignored by most search engines and not a replacement for REAL text content inside the <body> tag of your document.  

     

    If you're contemplating an image intensive website, be sure to add real text captions within <figure> tags. For example:

     

    <figure>
<img src="https://dummyimage.com/400x325" alt="placeholder" title="optional title">
<figcaption>Caption text lorem ipsum dolor...</figcaption>
</figure>

     

    Hope that helps.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Jon Fritz
    Community Expert
    Jon FritzCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    September 7, 2021

    The alt text of an image only shows if the image doesn't download for some reason, or if the viewer is using a screen reader. It should only be a short description of the image itself. It is not used by search engine crawlers for much of anything, so putting more than a short description of the image into the alt attribute is pretty much pointless.

      U
      unah64949675Author
      Known Participant
      September 7, 2021

      Thank you so much for that Jon, I will just leave it as it is with the short description. Best wishes. 

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