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Alt text image descriptions
Alt text image descriptions

What is it, why is it important and how to write it?

Amy Varley avatar
Written by Amy Varley
Updated over a week ago

If I were to close my eyes, how would you describe to me what your artwork looks like?

In a nutshell, that is the role of alt text - or alternative text - and it's important for 2x main reasons:

1) Accessibility > allowing people who can't view web pages, due to impaired vision or poor internet connections, to understand what is appearing on their screen

2) Search engine discovery > allowing search algorithms (e.g. Google search and even Bluethumb site search) to scan and understand the subject matter of an image

The goal here is to be as succinct as possible. Avoid 'stuffing' irrelevant keywords into your alt text. There is no benefit.

Likewise it is not essential to include 'oil painting', 'sculpture' etc. as we capture this elsewhere in the upload process.

Here's an example of image alt text. Aim to 'say what you see' in 6 words max.

Average: Flowers

Good: Pink flowers in vase

Best: Pink roses in Art Deco vase

Adding descriptive alt text whenever you upload an artwork is a small extra step, that brings a large range of 'behind the scenes' benefits to your artwork.

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