Image alt text
auditor
Paste your page HTML and get an honest verdict on every image - missing alts, filename echoes like "IMG_4032", decorative images done right, plus width, height and lazy loading. No dogma, just what each reader actually needs.
What do your images
say out loud?
| Image | Alt verdict | Width + height | Lazy |
|---|
On Yetty every image on your site is an editable field with its own alt text - and your AI can write all of them in one pass over MCP.
Alt text advice
without the dogma
Empty alt is a feature
alt="" on a decorative swoosh is correct - it tells screen readers "nothing to see here, keep going". Do not "fix" it with filler text.
Missing alt is the real bug
No alt attribute at all means the screen reader improvises - usually by reading the filename aloud. "DSC-four-zero-three-two dot jay-peg".
Linked images describe the function
When an image is a link, its alt becomes the link text. Say where it goes ("Home", "View cart") - not what the pixels look like.
Filename echoes fool no one
alt="hero-banner-final-v2" ticks the checkbox and helps nobody. If you would not say it out loud to describe the picture, it is not alt text.
Width + height stop the jump
Images without width and height attributes make the page jump as they load - the layout shift Google measures as Core Web Vitals.
Lazy-load below the fold
loading="lazy" defers offscreen images and speeds up first paint. Skip it only on the hero image people see immediately.
People also ask
Is an empty alt="" a mistake?
No - for decorative images it is exactly right. alt="" tells screen readers "skip this, it carries no information", which is far kinder than forcing someone to hear "decorative-swoosh-final-v2.png". The real mistake is the missing alt attribute: then the screen reader falls back to reading the filename aloud.
What should the alt text of a linked image say?
Describe the function, not the pixels. If your logo links to the homepage, the right alt is "Home" or your brand name - not "blue circle with white letters". A screen reader user hears the alt as the link text, so it should answer "where does clicking this take me?".
Does alt text still matter for Google and AI search?
More than ever. Alt text is the main signal for Google Images, it feeds the AI models that now answer questions with your content, and it is what appears if an image fails to load. Honest, specific alt text - what the image actually shows, in one phrase - beats keyword stuffing every time.