If you read my article on Martin Splitt’s episode of SEO Mythbusters, you would know that he stressed the importance high-quality content. Content isn’t just the right word choices, but it also refers to the videos and images attached.

Alt text for images may appear unimportant, but search engines scan these alternative texts. Majority of websites do not even find time to add the proper text. When an image fails to load, it is just replaced by an X icon, or a blank box will appear. Too bad, websites forget the benefits of providing an alt text when it comes to SEO.

A smart move would be add SEO keywords to the alt text portion of your images. Describe these images using relevant keywords, and it will usefully boost your web rankings. How to write the right alt text that’s both appropriate and SEO-friendly for the given content.

Do your research first.

Look into the different keywords you can use in your content including the alt texts of your images. For a free keyword tool, you can always run to Google’s Keyword Planner. When you searching for the right keywords, always go to for the words with low competition yet has a high search volume.

Obviously, you would want a “low competition” because popular sites would go for the medium ones. Top websites dominate this portion, but no one dares to go for the low search keywords. This is a great opportunity for you to have an advantage.

Dominating the “high volume” section is NOT an easy task, and you may not win in this area because of the tight competition among various prominent websites. You won’t even stand a chance if you are pitted against these websites who have power. Gaining the top spot will be very difficult so it’s important to start small. Eventually, you will build your way to the coveted first page of the search engine results.

The alt text should blend well with the primary keywords.

Alt text is important, but it should be your first prioritize. You should always prioritize the currently implemented SEO strategies. Do not rearrange your keywords just to suit your alt text. It should be the other way around.

Ideally, you should select images that will blend well with the keywords you chose. Because if you would focus on the alt text, you end up concentrating on the images instead of your website’s overall content.

Find a connection between the content and the chosen image text.

One SEO mistake that marketers often make is that that they do not link the alt text and the content.

Like I said earlier, alt texts should be able to clearly describe the images used. If you want your alt text to be able to explain what is in the image, relevant keywords should be used to ensure a strong connection among all the web elements.

For example, if you are writing about song writing and composing, your content should include keywords such as “Expert Songwriters”, or “Process of Composing a Song”. You need to add an image that stresses your main point. Your alt text should be able to explain the image, and it should contain the appropriate keyword. If you need examples of effective alt texts, refer to the blog post here.