It's ALL about Alt Text, Keywords & Titles

It is finally here!

The research that I have been doing on Alt Text, Keywords and Titles to help you understand why we should use them.

A newsletter to savour, save and share to as many people as you can.

After all, the more that know, understand and apply this, the better it is for the 250 million visually impaired, not to mention the many others who use screen readers as part of their daily interaction with the internet.

My research is by no means an exhaustive study of Alt Text, Keywords and Titles, but merely based on my original intention to make the photographs I take for both me and my clients stand out in the perpetual noise of the internet.

Little did I know that it would take up so much of my time to understand the valid reason that we should all include information in our images when posting for our businesses.

To comply with 'diversity and inclusion', especially on your website, where it is a legal requirement.

I would highly recommend you look at IPTC's website, which has all the information you need that I will not cover. The video recordings from the November Conference that I attended; are available as a replay.

Now for the nitty-gritty of what I keep shouting about on my Linkedin posts!

ALT TEXT!

Despite what many social media platforms allow in characters for Alt Text, you should not exceed 250 characters as the screen reader will cut off, and the recipient will miss the purpose of the image's meaning. Please keep it to a brief, textual description.

Example of Alt Text & Keywords on this photograph used:

Milky Way Galaxy is shining brightly over a foreground of rocks silhouetted and surrounded by trillions of stars glistening in the night sky.

= 136 characters.

Keywords included:

Galaxy, Stars, Astronomy, NightSky, Nature = 42 characters.

Total characters = 178

The 250 characters should include your keywords (no more than 5); otherwise, the screen reader will not pick them up.

As well as Alt Text, you can use extended description, and although I have not explored it yet, I still thought it is worth mentioning should you want to explore more.

LET'S TALK TITLES!

You can add the title of your image in post-processing, either on your phone, desktop or laptop, depending on the editing software you use.

Being a professional photographer, I use both. Lightroom is my preferred editing software, as you can add a variety of important information that will also help with your SEO.

The mobile version of Lightroom, available for iPad, iPhone and Android, start at ￡4.99 per month.

If you have Lightroom CC, it is FREE, and whatever changes you make will sync seamlessly across your network.

This screen is where you can add the TITLE, a caption and your copyright.

The bottom of this screen will display the date, time and settings and the original image number, which may interest you, but not particularly for the Alt Text that we are addressing.

You can add the essential keywords from the edit menu to help your SEO and drive traffic to your website.

Many of us leave this part of the process, mainly because it is time-consuming, but often because we don't know what keywords to add.

However, I cannot stress enough how much difference this will make to you and your business.

Some companies can help you with this part of the process, and I highly recommend Clemency Wright of Keywording Consultant, who has had years of experience in this field.

Of course, when I was researching the use of Alt Text, my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to switch the screen reader on my phone and experience it for myself.

What I found out there was astonishing. Not only does the screen reader pick up every nuance to be read, i.e. if you leave your original image number (as above) - IMG_9360.jpg that is precisely what the screen reader will read to the person listening in front of the screen!

If that isn't annoying enough, wait until you hear how it reads out all those fantastic emoji's that many of us love using (me included) on the text that accompanies our images.

The video below demonstrates just that. Be sure to listen carefully, and let me know if those emoji descriptions annoy you as much as they do me!

As you will see from the original post, all those emojis' look very pretty - but a tad too many if you are listening via a screen reader. (in my own honest opinion).

I now limit my emojis, and for the record, I have gone back into this post and deleted most of them.

And there you were, thinking it was all about Alt text!

However, I am sure that some of you will find this little fact somewhat helpful and may even consider the amount of emojis you use in your future posts.

It is equally important that we consider Alt Text in the same vein for websites - even if you have hundreds of images like me, there must be website accessibility.

60% of website home pages exclude Alt Text for images - don't let this be YOUR website.

And it doesn't end there. Anywhere you use images should hold descriptive Titles, Keywords and Alt Text, including publications, pdfs, emails, and power points.

Search Engines like Google find it difficult to index your images if they have an improper description on both websites and social media platforms, and this is where you will find that it affects your SEO ranking.

So what about our good friend AI (Artificial Intelligence)?

Well, right at this moment in time, I can assure you that it doesn't describe an image anywhere near as good as a human can and often misrepresents the picture entirely.

There is only one way to write Alt Text, and that is to do it yourself or get another human to do it for you.

Please may I take this opportunity to let you know that my upcoming Masterclass will cover more about Alt Text, Images, Content Creation and Linkedin?

It is taking place at 2:22 pm on 22.2.22 - It is FREE and you are more than welcome to join in.

Zoom invitations will be sent out shortly, but please feel free to leave a comment or Direct Message me and I will put you on my list.

If you want to know more about my services, head over to my website where you will have plenty to browse.

Until next time... with love ??