Story Based Question
You’re working on an e-commerce website for a fashion brand, and you’ve included several decorative images, such as background patterns, borders, and icons. These images don’t contribute to the content or product information but add to the overall design. You want to make sure they don’t affect your SEO negatively. How should you optimize the alt text for these decorative images?
Exact Answer
For decorative images, you should leave the alt text empty by using an empty alt="" attribute. This tells search engines and screen readers that the image is purely decorative and does not provide meaningful content, ensuring it doesn’t impact SEO or accessibility negatively.
Explanation
Decorative images are non-essential images that add to the design or visual appeal of a page but don’t convey important content or context. These images could include elements like borders, background patterns, or icons that enhance the aesthetic but don’t offer meaningful information. While it’s important to ensure that all images are accessible, decorative images should be handled differently.
- Use Empty Alt Text (
alt=""): The best practice for decorative images is to leave the alt attribute empty (alt=""). This indicates to search engines and screen readers that the image is decorative and doesn’t need to be described. When screen readers encounter these images, they’ll simply skip them, allowing users to focus on the meaningful content of the page. - Avoid Keyword Stuffing: Don’t use alt text with irrelevant or keyword-stuffed descriptions for decorative images. Adding unnecessary keywords to decorative images can create noise in your content and negatively affect SEO. Focus alt text only on images that contribute to the content.
- Use CSS for Decorative Images: If possible, consider using CSS for decorative images, such as background patterns or icons. This keeps the HTML clean and doesn’t require alt text at all. Using CSS for non-content images helps ensure they don’t interfere with SEO or accessibility considerations.
- Ensure Accessibility: Even though decorative images don’t require descriptive alt text, it’s still essential to ensure that the rest of your content is accessible. This includes providing clear alt text for functional images, such as product photos or icons that convey actions (e.g., “Add to Cart” button).
Example
Let’s say you’re designing a product detail page for a fashion brand. You include a few decorative images to enhance the overall design, such as a light background pattern behind the product images and small icons beside each product feature. Here’s how you can optimize the alt text:
- For the background pattern image, you add
alt=""in the HTML code. This tells search engines and screen readers that the image is just for visual design and doesn’t need to be interpreted.
Example: <img src=”background-pattern.jpg” alt=””> - For a small icon next to a product feature (like a checkmark), if it’s purely decorative and doesn’t carry any content, you also use
alt="".
Example: <img src=”checkmark-icon.jpg” alt=””> - If, instead, the icon was part of a button with functional meaning (like a “Wishlist” button), you would include alt text that describes its action, such as
alt="Add to Wishlist".
Example: <img src=”wishlist-icon.jpg” alt=”Add to Wishlist”>
By leaving the alt text empty for decorative images, you prevent unnecessary clutter and allow screen readers to focus on the more meaningful content, such as product descriptions and features. This ensures a better experience for users, particularly those relying on screen readers, while keeping the page clean and SEO-friendly.
Using empty alt text (alt="") for decorative images is the best way to optimize them for SEO and accessibility. It ensures that your content remains accessible without creating unnecessary noise for search engines or users.