What Are Alt-Text Tags and Why They Matter for Your Website
If you’re a subscriber to Promodata, you’re already familiar with the huge advantage of having access to over 50,000 products from across the promotional products industry in Australia and New Zealand. But there’s something new and exciting that’s just been added: alt-text tags for every image. You might be wondering – what exactly is alt-text, and why should you care?
Let’s break it down in simple, non-techy terms.
What Is Alt-Text?
Alt-text (short for “alternative text”) is a written description added to an image on a website. It’s not usually visible on the screen, but it’s tucked away in the background code. Its purpose is to tell people (and search engines) what the image shows.
For example, an image of a branded coffee mug might have alt-text like:
“White ceramic coffee mug with company logo printed in blue.”
It’s a small addition, but one that makes a big difference.
Why Is Alt-Text Important?
Here are the main ways alt-text helps:
1. Accessibility
Alt-text is crucial for making websites usable for people with visual impairments. Screen readers – software that reads out what’s on the screen – rely on alt-text to describe images. Without it, users miss out on important information.
By using Promodata’s images (now with alt-text), your website becomes more inclusive and accessible to everyone.
2. SEO Benefits
Search engines like Google can’t “see” images – they rely on text to understand what’s in a picture. That’s where alt-text comes in. When your site includes images with relevant alt-text, search engines can better understand your content. This can boost your website’s search engine ranking.
In other words, well-tagged images from Promodata can help more people find your site.
3. Better User Experience
Sometimes, images don’t load – maybe because of a slow internet connection or a technical issue. In those cases, the alt-text appears in place of the image, so your customers still get a sense of what should be there. It’s a small touch that keeps your website looking professional.
What This Means for Promodata Subscribers
Promodata’s move to add alt-text to its massive library of over 549,000 product images is a game-changer for distributors, resellers, and anyone building a website in the promotional products space.
Here’s how it helps you:
- Saves time: No need to write your own image descriptions – they’re already done for you.
- Improves SEO: More visibility in search engines = more traffic to your site.
- Increases accessibility: Your website becomes more user-friendly for everyone.
- Creates a polished, professional feel: Even when images can’t load, your content still communicates clearly.
Alt-text might seem like a small, behind-the-scenes detail, but its impact is huge. Thanks to Promodata’s recent update, subscribers now have access to a smarter, more accessible, and SEO-friendly image library.
Better visibility. Better accessibility. Better results.
That’s the Promodata advantage.
For the techy….
In the data feed, there’s a section called image_data that contains detailed data for each image.
Here you can find the alt_text label that can be coded into your project as needed.
Example below:
