Glossary · on-page-seo
What is Alt text?
Alt text is a short written description attached to an image in a page's code. Screen readers read it aloud to people who cannot see the image, browsers show it when the image fails to load, and search engines use it to understand what the picture shows, which matters for Google Images. Good alt text describes the image plainly in a sentence or less, the way you would describe it to someone on the phone. It is not a place to repeat keywords: a description like stitched red bridal lehenga on a mannequin beats a string of search phrases.
What does Alt text mean for a business in Pakistan?
Product and portfolio images on Pakistani sites are usually uploaded straight from WhatsApp with file names like IMG-20260412-WA0031 and no alt text at all. For trades sold visually, such as furniture, clothing, jewellery and interiors, Google Images is a real source of visitors, and those images are invisible to it.
A worked example
A furniture maker in Islamabad uploads 40 product photos. Each gets alt text such as solid sheesham wood dining table with six chairs, and a file name to match before upload. Over a few months some of those photos start appearing in image results for searches like sheesham dining table design, each one linking back to its product page.
Terms that go with this one
These come up in the same conversations and are worth reading together.
- Heading tags (H1, H2, H3)headingsHeading tags are the HTML elements that mark a page's headings, from H1 for the main title down through H2 and H3 for sections and subsections.…
- Image compressionimage ka size kam karnaImage compression is reducing the file size of an image so it downloads faster, with little or no visible loss of quality. It involves three steps…
- Product schemaproduct schemaProduct schema is structured data, using the Product type from schema.org, that describes an item for sale in a way machines can read: its name,…
- KeywordkeywordA keyword is the actual phrase a person types into a search box — one word or eight, it does not matter, the word keyword just means the query. It…
- SEOSEOSEO is the work of making a website turn up in Google's unpaid results when someone searches for what you sell. It has three parts: technical work so…
Alt text — quick answers
What does Alt text mean?
Alt text is a short written description attached to an image in a page's code. Screen readers read it aloud to people who cannot see the image, browsers show it when the image fails to load, and search engines use it to understand what the picture shows, which matters for Google Images.
Alt text ko Urdu mein kya kehte hain?
آلٹ ٹیکسٹ — though in practice almost everyone in Pakistan says "image ka alt text". Product and portfolio images on Pakistani sites are usually uploaded straight from WhatsApp with file names like IMG-20260412-WA0031 and no alt text at all.
Why does Alt text matter for a business in Pakistan?
Product and portfolio images on Pakistani sites are usually uploaded straight from WhatsApp with file names like IMG-20260412-WA0031 and no alt text at all. For trades sold visually, such as furniture, clothing, jewellery and interiors, Google Images is a real source of visitors, and those images are invisible to it.
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