Tools: Mastering Alt Text Generation: A Comprehensive Guide For Seo And...

Posted on Feb 26

• Originally published at altaudit.com

Okay, let's cut to the chase. I was digging into performance metrics on a client's site, specifically around their blog content, and noticed image loading was a significant bottleneck. Not just slow, but really slow. This wasn't just a UX annoyance; it was impacting engagement and, you guessed it, SEO. We're talking about how a seemingly small piece of HTML can become a major roadblock.

Here's the breakdown of what we found, what we did, and what the impact was.

The client had a ton of blog posts with numerous images. The issue wasn't just the sheer number, but the quality and optimization of these images. Many were high-resolution JPEGs, often uncompressed, leading to massive file sizes.

Beyond the raw performance, I saw a consistent pattern of poor alt text implementation. It was either missing entirely, generic (image.jpg), or stuffed with keywords. This was a double whammy: hurting accessibility for screen reader users and confusing search engines.

My approach was to audit the existing image assets and their alt text implementation across a representative sample of blog posts.

The audit revealed a predictable, yet frustrating, set of issues:

This confirmed that both image optimization and alt text strategy were severely lacking.

We implemented a multi-step solution targeting both image optimization and alt text best practices.

We introduced a process to optimize images before they were uploaded, and in some cases, implemented server-side resizing.

Source: Dev.to