Images missing alt text

Give every image an alt attribute. If the image carries information, describe what it shows in a short phrase that fits the page. If the image is a link, say where the link goes. If it is only decoration, give it an empty alt so screen readers skip it. SERPCompass flags images with no alt attribute at all, and most site builders have an alt text field for each image.

Last updated 28 October 2026, when every step was checked against the vendor's documentation.

Why it matters

Alt text is the text that stands in for an image. Screen readers read it aloud, and Google calls it the most important attribute for telling it about an image: it uses alt text, along with computer vision and the content of the page, to understand what an image shows. When an image is a link, Google also uses its alt text as the link's anchor text.

An image with no alt attribute at all is the worst case. The W3C's accessibility tutorial warns that some screen readers then read out the image's file name instead, and the HTML standard allows leaving alt out only when no text alternative is available at all; it says lack of effort is not a reason.

An empty alt="" is different: it says the image is decorative, so assistive technology skips it. That is the right choice for borders, flourishes and pictures that repeat what the text beside them already says. SERPCompass counts only images with no alt attribute. It cannot tell whether an empty one is right, so check the images that carry information by eye.

SERPCompass lists this as a notice, its lowest severity: it is about how your images are understood, not whether the page can be found. A single logo or icon without alt text in a header every page shares puts every page of the site on the list at once, and one fix to that template clears it from all of them.

The audit findings this guide fixes: Images missing alt text.

Find every page with this problem

Run the free scan on your domain. It counts the <img> elements with no alt attribute on every page it crawls, including images in the header and the footer. It leaves out images inside <noscript> blocks, such as the 1-pixel images some tracking tags add, which a browser running JavaScript never shows, and images hidden from screen readers. It shows your most urgent findings with the number of pages each affects; the Gap Report and a SERPCompass workspace list the affected pages themselves. The audit names pages, not images: to find the image, open the page, view its source and search for <img. Every match needs an alt.

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How to fix it on your platform

Image file size, format, and width and height attributes are separate audit checks and not covered here.

WordPress

In the block editor, select the Image block and open the block settings sidebar with the Settings button next to Save or Publish.
On the Content tab, type a description under Alternative text. If the image adds no information, select Mark as decorative there instead (recent WordPress versions offer it).
Update the post. Alt text typed in a block applies to that image on that post only.
To set the alt text WordPress uses when you insert an image in future, open Media > Library, click the image and fill in Alt Text in its attachment details; changes there save automatically. For an image already in a post, edit the alt text in that post's Image block.

Sources: Image block (WordPress documentation); Media Library screen (WordPress documentation).

Shopify

For a product image: in your Shopify admin, go to Products and click the product. Click the image to open its Preview media page, click Add alt text, type the text and click Save alt text. Shopify accepts up to 512 characters and recommends 125 or fewer.
For an image in your theme, such as a banner: go to Online Store, click Edit theme on your theme, click the section with the image in the theme editor's sidebar, click Edit on the image, enter the alt text in the dialog and click Save. Then click Save for the theme.
For an image inside a page, blog post or product description: double-click it in the rich text editor to open the Edit image dialog, enter the alt text and click Edit image to save.

Sources: Adding alt text to media (Shopify Help Center); Adding alternative text to your theme images (Shopify Help Center); Using the rich text editor for content (Shopify Help Center).

Wix

In the editor, click the image, click the Settings icon, type a description in the What's in the image? field and press Enter.
For a gallery: click it, click Manage Media or Change Images, select an image and type its title in the panel on the right; the title is used as the alt text. In a Wix Pro Gallery you can enter different text under Alt Text. Click Done.
To mark a decorative image: click Settings at the top of the editor, select Accessibility Wizard and click Scan Site. On the Detected issues tab, click the page, click Add alt text to images (then Get started or Edit), click the Edit icon next to the image, select This image is decorative, it doesn't need alt text, and click Apply. Wix says not to mark an image that holds a link as decorative.
Publish the site: the alt text is not live until you do.

Sources: Accessibility: Preparing Your Images and Galleries (Wix Help Center); Optimizing Your Images and Galleries for SEO (Alt Text) (Wix Help Center).

Squarespace

For an image block: in the Pages panel, click the page and click Edit. Click the image block, click the pencil icon, open the Content tab and type into Image alt text. It saves automatically.
For a product image: in the Pages panel, open the store page and click into a category or All. Hover over the product image, click ..., then Edit metadata, type into Alt text (up to 200 characters), click Apply and then Save. With no alt text, Squarespace uses the product name.
Gallery blocks take each image's alt text from its title, or its description when there is no title; gallery sections take it from the description.
In most other places Squarespace uses the image's file name when there is no alt text, so give files descriptive names in the Asset library. Section background images cannot take alt text.

Source: Adding alt text to images (Squarespace Help Center).

Plain HTML

Give every <img> an alt attribute: in page templates, includes, the header and the footer, not only in the page's own content.
For an image that carries information, describe what it shows, in the context of the page, in a short phrase.
For an image that is the only content of a link or button, say where the link goes or what the button does, not what the picture looks like: a logo that links to the home page is alt="Sunrise Bakery home", not alt="logo".
For a decorative image, write alt="" with nothing between the quotes. Do not leave the attribute out.

Sources: Requirements for providing text to act as an alternative for images (HTML Standard, WHATWG); Functional images (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative); Decorative images (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative); Google image SEO best practices (Google Search Central).

Examples

Bad
```
<img src="IMG_4821.jpg">
```
No alt attribute: SERPCompass counts it, and some screen readers read the file name aloud instead.
Bad
```
<img src="cake.jpg" alt="cake cakes best cake shop birthday cake cheap cakes">
```
Keyword stuffing. Google says it makes for a poor experience and may get the site treated as spam.
Bad
```
<a href="/"><img src="logo.png" alt="logo"></a>
```
The image is the whole link, so its alt text should say where the link goes.

Good

<img src="cake.jpg" alt="Two-tier chocolate birthday cake with fresh strawberries">

Says what the picture shows, in words a reader of the page would use.

Good
```
<a href="/"><img src="logo.png" alt="Sunrise Bakery home"></a>
```
Names the destination, as the W3C's tutorial does for a logo that links home.
Good
```
<img src="divider.svg" alt="">
```
Decorative: the empty alt tells screen readers to skip it, and SERPCompass does not flag it.

Common mistakes

Leaving the alt attribute out of decorative images instead of writing alt="". A missing attribute and an empty one mean different things.
Filling the attribute with image, photo or the file name: it silences the audit and tells nobody anything.
Stuffing keywords into alt text. Google warns it can get a site treated as spam.
Describing what a linked image looks like (logo, arrow) instead of where the link goes.
Repeating the sentence beside the image in its alt text. When the text already says it, the W3C treats the image as decorative: use alt="".
Fixing the images in posts but not the logo and icons in the theme's header and footer. Those appear on every page, so one of them puts every page on the list.
Putting a logo inside the page's H1 without alt text. The H1 then has nothing to read, and SERPCompass also reports the page as missing an H1.

Questions and answers

How long should alt text be?

Neither the HTML standard nor Google's image guidelines set a length. Use the short phrase or sentence the image needs in its place on the page. Some platforms add their own guidance: Shopify accepts up to 512 characters for a product image and recommends 125 or fewer, and Squarespace limits product image alt text to 200 characters.

Does every image need alt text?

Every image needs an alt attribute, but not every image needs words in it. Describe images that carry information or act as links. Give decorative images an empty alt, which tells screen readers to skip them. SERPCompass flags only images with no alt attribute at all.

Does alt text help SEO?

Google calls alt text the most important attribute for giving it more information about an image, and says it uses alt text with computer vision and the page's content to understand images. On a linked image, Google also uses the alt text as the link's anchor text. It also asks you to avoid stuffing alt text with keywords.

Is the title attribute the same as alt text?

No. The alt attribute is the text alternative screen readers read and search engines use. The title attribute is an optional extra; WordPress notes that many devices and browsers do not display it. Filling in an image's title does not fix a missing alt.

Do background images need alt text?

A CSS background image is not an img element, so it has no alt attribute and SERPCompass does not count it. If the picture carries information, put it on the page as an image with alt text instead. Some builders cannot add alt text to background images at all: Squarespace's section backgrounds are one example.

Missing or multiple H1 headings and skipped heading levels
Title tags that are missing, duplicated or too long
Links, buttons and form fields without accessible text, and a missing lang attribute
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Sources

Every step above was checked against these documents on 28 October 2026. Vendors change their menus; if a step no longer matches, the vendor's page is the authority.

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