What is Alt Text?
Alt text, also known as "alternative text," serves the purpose of improving accessibility for individuals who use visual assistive technologies by providing textual descriptions for images and videos. Its primary goal is to make digital content accessible to a broader audience. Alt text ensures that people with visual impairments or disabilities can comprehend and interact with visual elements in the content. By offering a textual description of images, videos, and other visual components, alt text enables screen readers and assistive technologies to convey the information to users through synthesized speech or braille displays.
When creating alt text for social media, it is essential to provide a concise and accurate description of the visual content. The alt text should focus on conveying vital information and context about the image or video, including its purpose, content, and any pertinent details necessary for understanding the visual element.
Alt text holds significance in SEO and social media because it contributes to search engine optimization and enhances social media sharing. Search engines rely on alt text to comprehend the content of images and videos, leading to better indexing and improved visibility in search results. Furthermore, alt text often serves as the default description when images are shared on social media platforms, thus improving the accessibility and comprehensibility of the shared content.