Image Tags: How to Balance Accessibility, Optimization and Style

One of the more significant factors that Google's ranking algorithms take into account when assessing a web page's deserved position in SERPs is whether it includes relevant image files. Ideally, images from a website will appear in the results pages generated for logically relevant queries in the Google Image Search function. However, Google will need assistance from the website itself to be able to associate an image with a concept because visual data cannot be parsed by the crawlers. Unless an image has an "alt" tag filled with a text-based description, Google will be forced to guess the subjects the image is relevant to by parsing the text content that may surround the image on the page.

In addition to helping Google identify what the image is about, alt tags associated with every image are all but required for a website that intends to do business providing services to customers because it would be penalized for not adhering to the standards set by the ADA otherwise. Users with visual impairments use screen reader programs to have the text contents of web pages recited out loud to them, so the alt text must describe what a given image is about for the sake of being accessible to all kinds of users.

None of this means that every single image populating a given web page needs to have its alt tag filled out for the page to have a chance at a lofty SERP position. If every decorative image enhancing a website's aesthetic theme has a filled alt description, users with screen readers would be forced to listen to a lot of irrelevant pieces of text. It is not uncommon, however, for site-auditing software to give users a lower-scoring appraisal of their page's SEO potential because it thinks that the decorative images will be harmful so long as they have no alt text. This feedback should be disregarded because of the importance of the ACA's standards, but web syntax exists that indicates to both Google's crawlers and users' screen readers that an image is a piece of visual embellishment to be overlooked. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/comments/c0fjcv/hasanyoneactuallytestedtheimpactof_filling/.