Your website photos may show the detail that helps someone choose you: a finished edge, a room layout, or the entrance to your shop. That information should still make sense to someone who cannot see the picture.
Image descriptions, often called alt text, give an image a text alternative. Writing them well starts with a simple question: what is this picture doing on this page?
For a Scottsdale business owner, the useful work is deciding what customers need to understand. Your developer can help make sure those decisions reach the published website correctly.
Start with the purpose of the image
Choose one important page and review its images beside the surrounding copy. A product photo, a linked logo, and a background flourish do different jobs. They should not receive the same treatment.
W3C's guidance says an informative image's text alternative should convey its meaning in context. That may be a short phrase or sentence; it does not have to describe every visible object. Read W3C's informative-image guidance.
Ask what would be missing if the image were unavailable. Is it a detail about the item, a destination someone can open, or simply atmosphere? Write down that purpose before touching the image description field.
- Information
- Explain the detail the reader needs.
- An action
- Name the destination or task.
- Decoration
- Keep it out of the spoken content.
Work through a small, useful set first: your main service page, one product or project page, and the contact page. Keep each page address with your notes so the person editing knows which placement you mean.
Describe the detail that matters here
Imagine a Scottsdale furniture shop showing a chair from several angles. The front view might explain the shape. A close-up might show a woven seat or an armrest joint. Repeating “chair” for every photo loses those differences.
Write what the image actually shows and what matters in that placement. “Oak chair with a woven seat and curved back” is useful only if those details are visible and accurate. Do not guess the material, the maker, or a feature from appearance alone.
Avoid filling the field with a list of cities or services. The person reading the description needs the picture's meaning, not a second sales pitch.
The studio photo below gives a concrete example. A description can identify the person and the activity without cataloging every object on the desk.
Brandon reviewing a website at a studio desk with a laptop and a large monitor.
Photo from Juncie’s studio archive.Compare your draft with the nearby caption and paragraph. Keep useful information; remove needless repetition. When a photo is doing a different job on another page, review its description again instead of assuming one stored value fits every placement.
Our project-gallery guide covers choosing and explaining real work. Image descriptions add another way to understand the evidence you already selected.
Name the action when an image is a link
An image can also act as a control. A customer may select a logo to reach the homepage or a small symbol to open another view.
W3C recommends describing the action or purpose of a functional image rather than just its appearance. When an image is the only content of a link, its text alternative needs to make the destination understandable. See W3C's functional-image examples.
For an image-only link to your showroom directions, a name such as “Directions to our Scottsdale showroom” communicates more than “Map icon.” Use that wording only when it matches the destination.
If the same link already contains clear visible text, the image may not need to repeat that name. Have your developer check the whole link, including any labels the theme supplies.
Ask them to demonstrate how the link is announced and where it goes. Our keyboard form guide complements that review with a practical check of reaching and using contact controls.
Let purely decorative images stay quiet
Not every image adds information. A background texture or flourish can improve the page's appearance without needing its own spoken description.
W3C recommends an empty alternative for decorative images so assistive technology can ignore them. It also distinguishes an empty alternative from leaving the attribute out: some screen readers may announce a filename when the attribute is missing. Read W3C's decorative-image guidance.
Do not assume an empty field in your editor proves the published image is handled correctly. Ask your developer to confirm how that editor and template represent decoration.
A useful review note would be “Background texture adds no information; mark as decorative.” It is much clearer than asking someone to add descriptions to every image indiscriminately.
The page address and the exact image placement.
What the image adds, where it leads, or why it is decoration.
The wording and behavior on the published page.
Give detailed information room on the page
A floor plan, comparison chart, or process diagram may contain more than a short description can carry. Identify the image briefly, then provide the essential details in accessible page content.
W3C describes a two-part approach for complex images: a short identification and a fuller text alternative. That longer explanation can sit with the image where everyone can use it. Read the complex-image guidance.
For example, imagine a showroom diagram that points customers toward a collection desk. Put the relevant arrival instructions in ordinary text as well. Confirm the route with staff; do not infer it from an outdated drawing.
The same care applies to promotional graphics. If the only place you publish a workshop time is inside a picture, customers need another way to read it. W3C recommends actual styled text in preference to images of text because it is more flexible for readers. See its guidance on images of text.
Our workshop event-page guide can help you organize those details as useful page content.
Review the published result after changes
Give your editor or developer a short record: page address, image, purpose, proposed wording, and any longer explanation required. Ask them to show you the result in the actual page, including how a screen reader encounters it.
Check for the right image and the right description together. Replacing a photo while keeping its old description can leave customers hearing about something that is no longer shown.
Include linked-image destinations and decorative treatment in the review. A filled description field alone does not tell you whether a control has a useful name or the page repeats the same information several times.
Make this part of routine content editing. The person adding a project photo should know where its description belongs and who reviews uncertain details. Keep a worked example in your team notes so the next update starts from a clear standard.
Your Scottsdale business website should explain the things customers need to choose you. Our web design service can help review the images and their place in that experience. Tell Brandon which page needs a closer look.
