How to Write Useful Alt Text With the Image Alt Text Generator
This guide shows how to review generated alt text for accessibility, accuracy, context, and appropriate SEO use before adding it to a page.
What Is Image Alt Text?
Alt text (alternative text) is a short description added to an image's HTML tag that describes what the image shows. It serves two purposes: it's read aloud by screen readers for visually impaired users, making your site accessible; and it tells search engines what the image depicts, since Google cannot reliably interpret image content without a text description. Well-written alt text is both an accessibility requirement and an SEO opportunity.
Images without alt text are invisible to search engines and inaccessible to screen reader users. Images with vague alt text like "image1.jpg" or "photo" waste the opportunity. Images with descriptive, keyword-relevant alt text that accurately describes the image content contribute to ranking for both page-level keywords and image search results.
How to Use This Image Alt Text Generator
Before generating, enter a valid Anthropic API key in the required field. Your key is sent only to our server for that one request, forwarded to Anthropic, and is not stored on our servers; it is saved in your browser only if you click Save Key. Then upload an image or describe what it shows — the subject, context, and any text visible in the image — and click Generate. The tool produces alt text variations that are descriptive, naturally include relevant keywords, and stay within the recommended 125-character limit. Copy the output directly into your CMS's alt text field or paste it into your image tag: <img src="example.jpg" alt="your alt text here">.
Use this tool when publishing new content, and periodically audit existing images on your most important pages. Pages with multiple images that all lack alt text are a quick win — adding descriptions to 10–15 images on a high-traffic page can improve its accessibility score and give Google additional keyword context for the page, which can nudge rankings for secondary keyword variations.
Alt Text Best Practices
Be specific: "SEO audit score dashboard showing 73/100 with technical issues highlighted" is better than "SEO dashboard." Include the primary keyword naturally where it fits the actual image description — don't keyword-stuff alt text on images that have nothing to do with the keyword. Leave the alt attribute empty (alt="") for purely decorative images like background patterns or dividers — screen readers skip empty alt attributes, which is the correct behaviour for images that add no informational value. For product images on ecommerce sites, include the product name, colour, and key variant in the alt text — these often rank in Google Image Search and drive conversion-ready traffic.