The Media Library – Alt Text and Titles

Transcript

Hi, this is Michele with Bergh Consulting. Thanks for joining me today. In this video, we’re going to talk about the alt text primarily for the images that you add on your website. For purposes of this video, I’m in the backend of my website and I’m doing that on purpose. There’s a few things I want to point out real quick first. I do use a plugin to help me sort through to keep my stuff organized and to help optimize. You’re probably seeing some things here that are a little bit different than what you might see on your website.

But moving into the media library, I do prefer this grid view. I find it easier to work in, and you’re going to see this is an image that I actually just loaded up earlier today I believe. It hasn’t been updated. The first thing that I want to talk about is that you can either do this as you load up images, or you can make it an ongoing task that you do periodically to go back through and update. Doing it as you go is in some ways more efficient, but this actually slows down the process for me in getting content up and out onto the website.

I also have virtual assistants who do different aspects of the process. I have somebody else that actually comes through once a week and updates this information for me. That’s the method that I typically choose is having somebody do it periodically rather than doing it each and every time I’m in here. First we want to talk about the alternative text. This is important for both the search engines and for accessibility. If I’m unable to see my screen and I’m using a screen reader, whatever you have in this alternative text box is what is going to be read to me.

If it’s blank, I have no idea what the image is. Now, if the image is purely decorative, you don’t have to fill it in. In terms of the search engines, you’re not going to get dinged for that necessarily, but I do prefer to fill them all in. I’m not sure how the search engines, their algorithm works for them to know whether this image is just decorative or if it’s important content. And I would prefer to be safe than sorry, and there’s nothing wrong with letting people know this is an image of whatever. That’s why this section is so important.

This is a do it yourself image. And then the title. The title is somewhat important for search engines. They prefer it to match your alt texts or also be descriptive of what the image is itself. We don’t need the word image there. I usually go in and just match them up. One other thing that I am not great about, and it’s a timing issue, and one of my philosophies is I have certain best practices that I always follow with clients. In terms of my own work, and what I teach other people, is that I’m a firm believer in doing what you can do consistently.

If there are things that are likely going to hold you up and cause you to not continue to make progress, there might be some of those things that you want to just let go. And for me, this is one of them. If I have to rename every image I make for my website, it would just add time to the process as a whole. I don’t tend to rename the file, but I do try to fill in this information here. If you’re in the grid view, it allows you to just start going through here and making some changes here.

How to use the markup tool for feedback from mail view. then I’m going to put that in here. VIP. This is actually for VIP day offer, with crown. It’s somewhat decorative, so I wouldn’t have to fill this in, but I’m going to go ahead and do that because it is on a page specific to an offer that I have.

This was another image that I used. VIP day, red carpet. I’m going to change that here. You get the idea. You’re just going to go through. This is a mood board mock up for Poké Restaurant. You’re just going to go through and do that. As I said, be as descriptive as possible. It is not necessary to put the alt text in if it’s purely decorative. My advice is it’s a good idea to be changing this. And it’s just a good practice to be in. The more you do it, the more routine this will become. And I would put it in there anyway. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I’m always willing to help. And I appreciate you staying with me through the video today.