That Blank Alt Field Is Costing You Traffic: A 60-Second Alt Text Formula That Works

There's a field in every CMS upload screen that most of us blow past like a terms-of-service checkbox: alt text. It's optional. It's invisible on the page. So it gets skipped, or worse, filled with a keyword pile like "wedding photographer Austin Texas best wedding photography Austin" that helps nobody — not Google, not visitors using screen readers, and honestly not even you.

Here's the thing: alt text is one of the few ranking signals you can fully control in about 60 seconds per image. You just need a system.

Why Alt Text Pulls Double Duty

Alt text serves two audiences at once, and they want mostly the same thing.

First, there's accessibility. Roughly 1 in 4 adults in the US lives with a disability, and screen reader users depend on alt text to understand what's on the page. Skip it, and their screen reader either stays silent or reads out the raw filename — "IMG_4827_final_FINAL.jpg" — which tells them nothing.

Second, there's search. Google Images drives a meaningful slice of referral traffic for a lot of sites, and descriptive alt text helps search engines understand and rank your visuals. If you run a food blog, an Etsy shop, or a portfolio site, image search can quietly become one of your top traffic sources.

The good news: when you write alt text for a human who can't see the image, you almost always end up with something Google loves too. The two goals aren't in conflict. Keyword stuffing is what breaks both.

The Mistakes That Give Alt Text a Bad Name

Before the formula, a quick hall of shame:

• Starting with "image of" or "picture of." Screen readers already announce that it's an image. You're spending your first three words on nothing.
• The keyword dump. If your alt text reads like a meta tag from 2011, Google treats it as spam signal, and screen reader users get a word salad instead of a description.
• The filename copy-paste. "DSC_0042" is not a description. It's a cry for help.
• Alt text on decorative images. That abstract gradient background behind your hero section? It should have empty alt text (alt=""), so screen readers skip right past it. Describing it just adds noise.

The 60-Second Formula

Here's the template I use on every image I upload, and it takes less than a minute once it's muscle memory:

[What it is] + [key detail that matters] + [context, only if it adds meaning]

Let's run it through a few before/after examples.

Example 1 — a bakery's product photo

• Before: image of cake
• After: three-layer chocolate cake with raspberry filling on a marble cake stand

The before tells a screen reader user almost nothing and gives Google one generic keyword. The after paints a picture and naturally includes the search terms real people use ("chocolate cake," "raspberry filling").

Example 2 — a blog's lifestyle shot

• Before: woman working laptop coffee shop remote work digital nomad lifestyle
• After: freelancer working on a laptop at a window seat in a Seattle coffee shop

The before is a keyword comma-splice. The after reads like a sentence, includes a natural location keyword, and — this matters — only describes what's actually in the frame. If there's no visible clue she's a "digital nomad," don't say she is.

Example 3 — an infographic

• Before: infographic
• After: bar chart showing email open rates by subject line length, with subject lines under 30 characters performing best

For data visuals, describe the takeaway, not just the chart type. And if the graphic carries a lot of detail, pair short alt text with a longer description in the surrounding text or a linked transcript.

A Few Judgment Calls Worth Knowing

How long should it be? Aim for one clear sentence, roughly 125 characters or fewer. Many screen readers truncate around there anyway.

Should I include keywords? Only if they honestly describe the image. "Chocolate cake" belongs in the alt text of a chocolate cake photo. "Best SEO agency" does not belong on a stock photo of a handshake — which, frankly, shouldn't be on your page anyway.

What about text inside the image? If your graphic contains words a reader needs — a quote card, a price, a headline — that text should appear in the alt text. Better yet, put the real text on the page as HTML so it's selectable and searchable.

Buttons and icons? Functional images (like a magnifying glass icon for search) get alt text describing the action: "search," not "magnifying glass."

Make It a Habit, Not a Chore

The easiest way to actually do this is to fold it into your upload routine. When you resize and export an image — you are resizing and exporting, right? — treat alt text as the final step of the export, not an afterthought you'll "come back to later." You won't come back to later. Nobody comes back to later.

Sixty seconds per image. Two audiences served. One less thing for a competitor with better habits to outrank you on.

Your future readers — all of them — will notice the difference, even if they never know why the site felt easier to use.