Alt Text Examples: Good vs Bad
Real patterns from 2,449 audited images, with a fix for each type.
Good alt text describes the image in its context, in 5 to 15 specific words. "Red trail running shoe, side view" beats "shoe" or a file name like "IMG_4832". Decorative images take an empty alt attribute, and linked images describe the destination of the link.
Good vs bad alt text examples
Five image types, the alt our audits actually find, and what to write instead.
| Image type | Found in audits | Better alt |
|---|---|---|
| Product photo | IMG_4832.jpg | Red trail running shoe, side view, white sole |
| Team photo | image | The five-person support team at the Lyon office |
| Bar chart | chart | Bar chart: organic traffic doubled from January to June 2026 |
| Company logo | logo | Filikod logo |
| Decorative divider | fancy-line-3.png | Empty alt, on purpose (alt="") |
How to write good alt text
Describe the content, not the medium
Skip "image of" and "photo of": screen readers already announce the element as an image. Start with the subject.
Be specific to the context
The same shoe photo needs a different alt on a product sheet and in a race report. Say why the image sits on this page.
Say what matters, then stop
5 to 15 words, 8 to 125 characters. Give the details a reader needs here and leave the rest out.
Linked images describe the destination
When the image is a link, the alt says where it leads. A logo pointing to the homepage reads "Filikod, back to home" rather than "logo".
What should alt text include?
The subject first, then the details that matter in this context: color or material for a product, the takeaway for a chart.
Keywords earn their place only when an honest description contains them naturally. Forced keywords read badly out loud and search engines treat them as noise.
Examples by image type
Six situations you meet on every site, with an alt that works for each.
Product photos
"Blue ceramic pour-over coffee dripper, 2-cup size". Name the object, the material and one detail a buyer cares about.
Charts
"Line chart: ALT scores improved from 34% to 96% over six months". Lead with what the chart proves, in numbers.
Logos
The company name does the job: "Filikod logo". When the logo is a link, add the destination.
Icons
A meaningful icon gets the action it triggers, like "Download invoice". An icon repeating the text next to it gets an empty alt.
Decorative images
Dividers, textures and flourishes take alt="" on purpose. Screen readers skip them, which is exactly the point.
Screenshots
Say what the screen shows: "WordPress media library showing the Alternative text field". Name the visible state a reader needs.
of audited images have no alt text at all
carry at least one alt text issue
audits behind these numbers
distinct domains analyzed
Frequently asked questions
Only when an honest description contains them naturally. An alt written for Google first reads badly out loud and ends up hurting the ranking it was chasing.
The company name: "Filikod logo". If the logo links to the homepage, mention the destination. The word "logo" on its own says nothing.
An empty alt, alt="". Screen readers then skip the image, which is the expected behavior for an ornament.
File names ("IMG_4832", "DSC00217"), generic labels like "image" or "photo", messaging exports like "WhatsApp Image 2026-01-15" and leftover metadata like "1200×628" or "final-final-v2".
Another question?
The full FAQ covers the checker, the score, the plugin and how your data is handled.
Which of these is your site full of?
Paste your URL into the free checker: every image comes back classified, scored out of 100 and matched to the patterns above.
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