Alt Text Examples: 20 Good and Bad Descriptions to Copy
Rules are easy to read and hard to apply. Examples are the other way round: once you have seen a dozen weak descriptions next to better ones, the pattern becomes obvious.
Below are examples across the image types most sites actually have — people, products, charts, screenshots, logos, and decoration. Each pair shows the version to avoid, the version to copy, and a one-line reason.
The five questions every description answers
Before the examples, a checklist. Good alt text answers, in five to fifteen words:
- What is this? The subject, not the file name.
- What does it show that matters here? The detail the surrounding paragraph is talking about.
- Why is it on this page? A product photo sells; a chart proves a number; a screenshot shows a step.
- Would a listener miss something without it? If not, the image may be decorative.
- Does it read naturally aloud? That is the real test.
Two things it does not need: an opening like "image of" (a screen reader already says that), and keywords repeated for search engines (they read the same text a person does — and so does everyone else).
People and team photos
- Weak: "team photo" or "IMG_2041.jpg". Better: "Five members of the customer support team standing outside the Bristol office."
- Weak: "CEO". Better: "Ama Okafor, founder of Northwind, speaking at the 2026 packaging conference."
- Weak: "man at desk". Better: "A developer testing a checkout flow on two monitors while a colleague takes notes."
Names matter when they identify someone the article discusses. If the person is anonymous in the story, describe the action and setting instead.
Product photos
- Weak: "shirt". Better: "Sand-coloured linen shirt with a camp collar, photographed flat against a white background."
- Weak: "running shoes". Better: "Grey and orange trail running shoes seen from the side, with a raised heel and lugged sole."
- Weak: "coffee". Better: "A 250 g bag of whole-bean espresso blend standing next to a filled cup."
- Weak: "on sale now, buy cheap shoes, best price". Better: drop the sales language. Prices and stock change; the description should not.
For a featured image and the first gallery shot, the product name plus the angle or material is usually enough. For a close-up of a seam or a cuff, say what detail is shown and why it matters. The WooCommerce alt text guide goes deeper on stores.
Charts, screenshots, and diagrams
- Weak: "chart". Better: "Bar chart showing monthly revenue rising from $12k in January to $41k in June, with the steepest gain in April."
- Weak: "screenshot". Better: "The AltMint review screen listing twelve images missing alt text, each with a suggested description and a Save button."
- Weak: "diagram". Better: "Diagram of the checkout flow: cart, shipping address, payment, confirmation, with a retry loop from payment back to the address step."
These can run longer than fifteen words. If the image carries the argument, a short paragraph is correct; if the same information is already in the text, a one-line pointer is enough.
Logos, icons, and decorative images
- Logo linked to the homepage: alt="Example Ltd home" — the description names the destination, not the drawing.
- Logo in a customer wall: alt="Acme" — the company name is the point.
- Icon inside a labelled button: alt="" — the button already has an accessible name; repeating it doubles the announcement.
- Divider or background flourish: alt="" — decorative images should have an empty attribute, not a missing one.
An empty alt="" tells assistive technology to skip the image. Leaving the attribute off entirely is different: some screen readers fall back to the file name, so "DSC_0098.jpg" gets read aloud.
A before/after table to keep open
| Image | Weak alt text | Better alt text | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team photo on About | team-photo-final.jpg | Six members of the design team in front of the Lisbon studio. | Names the subject, place, and group size. |
| Linen shirt product shot | shirt | Sand-coloured linen shirt with a camp collar on a white background. | Adds the details a shopper cannot see from the title. |
| Revenue chart | chart | Line chart of revenue from January to June, rising from $12k to $41k. | States the trend and the numbers that matter. |
| Dashboard screenshot | screen | Settings screen with the API provider dropdown set to OpenAI. | Describes the step, not just the object. |
| Search icon in a button | search icon | alt="" (button is labelled "Search") | Avoids announcing the same name twice. |
| Decorative wave divider | wave | alt="" | Nothing is lost if the image is skipped. |
| Book cover linking to a review | book cover | Read our review of The Design of Everyday Things | Names the link destination. |
| Photo in a tutorial | photo | Close-up of the shipping label placed on the outside of the box. | Supports the instruction in that step. |
The shortcut: say what the image shows and why it is here. If either half is missing, the description is not finished.
How to write your own without overthinking
- Delete the file name. If your first draft looks like a filename, start from what you see.
- Read the paragraph around the image. The right description depends on the sentence it supports.
- Write one sentence. Subject, important detail, purpose. Stop when a listener would know as much as a sighted visitor.
- Read it aloud once. Awkward phrasing is easier to hear than to spot.
For a whole library, the manual version of this process is covered in the WordPress alt text walkthrough. When the queue runs to hundreds of images, the review-first workflow in what an AI alt text generator can and cannot do is how AltMint keeps suggestions separate until you approve them.
Frequently asked questions
How long should alt text be?
Five to fifteen words for most images. Charts, screenshots, and diagrams may need a sentence or three if they carry meaning the paragraph does not repeat. Past about 125 characters, check whether every clause earns its place.
Should I put keywords in alt text?
Only where they would naturally appear in a description a person would say. "Running shoes with a lugged sole" is fine; "buy cheap running shoes online" is not, and it is read aloud to every screen reader user.
What about images that are links?
Describe the destination, not the picture. A book cover that links to a review should read "Read our review of The Design of Everyday Things", because screen reader users often navigate by link text.
Can AI write alt text?
It can describe what is visible, often well. It cannot know your intent, the paragraph around the image, or which decorative images should be skipped — so review suggestions before saving them, especially on product pages.