Image Alt Text Auditor

To audit the alt text on a page, paste its URL into the free Image Alt Text Auditor above, or paste the HTML. It lists every image, including lazy-loaded ones, and flags missing alt attributes and linked images that leave the link with no name. It also flags alt text that is just a file name, keyword stuffing, overlong descriptions and the same alt text reused across different images. You can audit up to 20 pages in one run and download every image and its verdict as a CSV.

Last updated: 6 November 2026. Written by Saad Raza.

Key takeaways

• Every image needs an alt attribute. Informative images get a short description; purely decorative images get an empty alt="".
• The most serious problem is a linked image with no alt text, such as a logo or an icon button, because the link then has no name at all for screen-reader users.
• File names, keyword lists and “image of” openings are weak alt text. Describe what the image shows and why it is on the page.
• Good alt text helps people first and Google Images second. Google uses it, together with the surrounding text, to understand the image.

What alt text is for

Alt text is the text alternative for an image. Screen readers read it aloud, browsers show it when an image fails to load, and search engines use it to understand what the image shows. My guide to what alt text is and how to write it covers the principles; this tool checks how well a real page follows them.

Alt text has two jobs that occasionally pull apart. For accessibility, it should convey the purpose of the image in context. For image SEO, it should describe the image accurately. The good news is that an honest, specific description does both. Stuffing keywords into alt text does neither: it reads badly aloud and can look like spam.

How to use the Image Alt Text Auditor

1. Paste one URL, or up to 20 with one per line. Or paste HTML from a draft or a staging page into the second box.
2. Choose whether to show only problems and suggestions, or every image.
3. Run the audit. The summary counts images, missing alt, linked images with no name, weak alt text and decorative images.
4. For several pages, the Pages table gives each page a score: the share of images that are fine or only need a light touch.
5. Download the CSV to work through the fixes in a spreadsheet or hand them to whoever manages the content.

What each result means

Lazy-loaded images are read from data-src, data-lazy-src and srcset, so plugins such as Smush and LiteSpeed Cache do not hide images from the audit. One-pixel tracking images are ignored, and the same image repeated with the same alt text is counted once with a copy count.

A worked example

The example in the tool audits seven images of the kind found on a typical shop page. The summary shows seven images, one with missing alt, one linked image with no name, two with weak alt text and one decorative image.

• A logo inside a home-page link with alt="": Empty (linked). The link has no name. Use the brand name.
• IMG_2041.JPG with no alt attribute: Missing.
• alt="red-shoes.jpg": File name.
• alt="red shoes, cheap red shoes, buy red shoes, red shoes sale, best red shoes": Keyword stuffing.
• alt="Image of a red leather brogue on a white background": Starts with “image of”, a light suggestion to drop the first three words.
• A divider graphic with alt="": Empty (decorative), which is correct.
• alt="Our five-person design team outside the Lahore studio": passes.

How to write better alt text

• Describe the content and the purpose. “Porcelain veneer before and after on a front tooth” tells a reader far more than “veneers”.
• Keep it short. One sentence is usually enough. Put long explanations of charts in the page text or a caption.
• Name the destination for linked images. A logo that links home should say the brand name; an icon that opens search should say “Search”.
• Leave decorative images empty. Borders, spacers and background flourishes should have alt="". My guide to alt text for decorative images explains how to decide.
• Use the keyword only where it is true. If the image shows teeth whitening, say so naturally. Do not add keywords the image does not show.

Alt text is one part of image optimisation. File size and dimensions matter as much for speed, so pair this audit with the image compressor, and see how to optimise blog images for file names, formats and captions. For a broader page check, the on-page SEO checker covers titles, headings and links as well.

Limits

The auditor reads images in the HTML our server receives, or in the HTML you paste. Images inserted by JavaScript after load, CSS background images and inline SVG icons are not included, so a JavaScript-heavy page may show fewer images than you see. Whether alt text is accurate needs a human: the tool can tell that “red shoes” is not a file name, but not whether the photo actually shows red shoes. Rules such as the 125-character guideline are conventions, not hard limits. Up to 20 pages are checked per run within the fair-use limit; pasted HTML is checked in your browser and never sent anywhere.

Questions about the Image Alt Text Auditor

If you want images and accessibility fixed across a whole site, my on-page optimisation service covers alt text, headings and internal links, and you can ask for a free audit. You can also browse the other free on-page SEO tools.