It is an obvious point, but it’s also one that many web designers overlook: graphics and images online present a serious challenge for users who happen to be blind or visually impaired. Fortunately, optimizing non-text items for SEO uses the same technology as the assistive tools that make the internet more accessible for users who would normally find these elements the most challenging to see.
This article will cover a few useful tips from leading experts that you can use to help ensure that your site is as inclusive as possible.
Alt Attributes
These are used in web design for SEO so that the bots used by the search engines can interpret the content of an image or discover what it is that the image directs to if it is used as a hyperlink. The alt attribute is also used by screen readers which Professional SEO services company like www.elevateuk.com will help you with.
Using alt attributes correctly is vital for both SEO and accessibility, but there are some key points to bear in mind:
- You should never use an alt attribute on an image that is purely decorative. It has no content value and will only serve to waste a visually impaired user’s time.
• There’s no need to use alt text if you have also included a text link; users with screen reader software and search engines will simply “read” the same text twice and this will harm your SEO.
• Keep your alt tags short. Screen readers can’t interpret long alt tags well, so for anything wordy, you should use a caption.Captions
Google recognises captions and can even create captions by itself from text hat is positioned close to an image on a page. Captioning an image also makes sure that screen readers have useful information to assist their users. Specialists recommend that you should always describe what you’re captioning (for example, “Figure 1”) as these measure help both accessibility and your SEO rankings.
Text as images
This can be summed up simply as something that you should avoid at all costs. The text cannot be read by search engines, nor can it be read by your users without tools such as screen readers. Always use HTML styles with CSS instead.