What is Alt Text?
Alt text is a brief written description of an image that appears when the image cannot be displayed or accessed by a user. It serves to provide context and improve accessibility for visually impaired users, while also helping search engines understand the content of images.
Alt Text and Product Information Management
Alt text is often overlooked as “just SEO copy,” but it’s really structured product data like any other attribute—which makes it a natural fit for PIM management. Just like size, color, or material, alt text needs to be accurate, consistent, and tied to the specific product and image it describes, and it varies by locale, channel, and even image type (lifestyle shot vs. product-on-white). Managing it ad hoc in a DAM folder or spreadsheet leads to the same problems as any other unmanaged attribute: inconsistency across channels, missed fields when new products launch, and no single source of truth when a listing goes out with blank or generic alt text. A PIM lets you treat alt text as a governed field with validation rules, bulk-editing capability, and localization support, so it scales with the catalog instead of becoming a manual afterthought—which matters more now given how much accessibility and AI-driven visual search depend on well-structured image metadata.
Related Terms
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is alt text important for my business website?
Alt text helps make your website more accessible to people with visual impairments who use screen readers. It also improves your search engine optimization (SEO) by providing context for images, which search engines can’t interpret on their own. This can lead to better rankings in search results and increased visibility for your business online. Additionally, alt text ensures that if an image fails to load, users still understand what the image was meant to convey, maintaining a smooth user experience.
How long should alt text be?
Aim to keep your alt text concise and descriptive, typically between 50 to 125 characters. This length allows you to provide enough information without overwhelming users or search engines. Focus on describing the most important aspects of the image that are relevant to your content or product. If you need to include more details, consider adding them to the surrounding text or image caption instead. Remember that brevity and clarity are key when writing effective alt text.
