The Ultimate Guide to Adding Alt Text on Facebook: Boost Accessibility, SEO, and Engagement

Imagine scrolling through your Facebook feed and encountering a wall of blank spaces where vibrant images should be. For over 2.2 billion people globally who live with some form of visual impairment, this isn’t a thought experiment—it’s their daily reality (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment). But you, as a responsible and savvy marketer, have the power to change that. The key? Mastering the art of alt text.

Alt text, short for “alternative text,” is a concisely written description embedded within the code of your images. It acts as a bridge, conveying the essence of your visuals to screen readers used by individuals with visual impairments. Additionally, alt text appears in place of an image if it fails to load, ensuring that your message isn’t lost due to technical glitches. While its primary function is to make online content more accessible, alt text also offers a surprising array of benefits for marketers, boosting both your SEO and engagement rates.

The Power of Alt Text: Beyond Accessibility

Think of alt text as a secret weapon in your Facebook marketing arsenal. Here’s why:

Accessibility is Essential, Not Optional: Ensuring that your content is accessible isn’t just good practice—it’s a social imperative. By adding alt text to your Facebook images, you’re making your content accessible to a wider audience, fostering inclusivity and demonstrating social responsibility. For instance, companies like Apple prioritize accessibility, setting industry standards and showing their commitment to all users. But you, as a responsible and savvy marketer, have the power to change that. The key? Mastering the art of alt text.

Alt text, short for “alternative text,” is a concisely written description embedded within the code of your images. It acts as a bridge, conveying the essence of your visuals to screen readers used by individuals with visual impairments. Additionally, alt text appears in place of an image if it fails to load, ensuring that your message isn’t lost due to technical glitches. While its primary function is to make online content more accessible, alt text also offers a surprising array of benefits for marketers, boosting both your SEO and engagement rates.

The Power of Alt Text: Beyond Accessibility

Think of alt text as a secret weapon in your Facebook marketing arsenal. Here’s why:

• Accessibility is Essential, Not Optional: Ensuring that your content is accessible isn’t just good practice—it’s a social imperative. By adding alt text to your Facebook images, you’re making your content accessible to a wider audience, fostering inclusivity and demonstrating social responsibility. For instance, companies like Apple prioritize accessibility, setting industry standards and showing their commitment to all users.¹
• SEO Supercharge: Search engines like Google rely on alt text to understand the context and relevance of your images. By incorporating relevant keywords naturally within your alt text, you’re improving your chances of appearing in image search results, driving more traffic to your content.
• Engagement Amplifier: While alt text isn’t directly visible to all users, it can indirectly impact engagement. An accessible post not only benefits users with disabilities but also improves comprehension for all users, making it more likely to be shared, liked, and commented on.
• Brand Building Through Inclusivity: In today’s conscious consumer landscape, businesses that prioritize accessibility build trust and loyalty. According to a survey by Accenture, 62% of consumers prefer to purchase from companies that stand for a purpose, such as inclusivity.² By consistently adding alt text to your Facebook images, you’re showcasing your commitment to inclusivity, strengthening your brand image, and resonating with a wider audience.

Navigating Facebook’s Alt Text Features

Facebook offers a few ways to implement alt text:

• Automatic Alt Text (AAT): Facebook utilizes AI to automatically generate basic descriptions for your images. While this is a helpful starting point, it’s crucial to remember that AI isn’t perfect. Always review and customize the auto-generated alt text to ensure accuracy and relevance. AI can misinterpret images, leading to misleading descriptions that can confuse or alienate users.
• Manual Alt Text – Taking Control: For optimal results, manually add your own alt text. This gives you complete control over the description, allowing you to tailor it to your specific audience and marketing goals.
• Alt Text for Ads: Don’t forget about accessibility when running Facebook ads! Ensure that your ad images have clear and concise alt text to maximize reach and engagement among all users. Accessible ads not only comply with best practices but can also improve ad performance by reaching a broader audience.
• Mobile vs. Desktop: The process of adding alt text might vary slightly between the Facebook mobile app and the desktop version. Familiarize yourself with both to ensure consistency across all platforms. Consider creating a standard operating procedure (SOP) for your team to follow when adding alt text on different platforms.

A Step-by-Step Guide: Adding Alt Text Like a Pro

Ready to make your Facebook content more accessible? Let’s break down the process:

Adding Alt Text to New Posts:

1. Desktop: When creating a new post, click on the image you want to add. Once the image is uploaded, hover over it and click on the “Edit Photo” button. Select “Alt Text” from the options and enter your description in the provided field.
2. Mobile: After selecting your image for a new post, tap on the image itself. Then tap the three dots. You’ll see an option to “Edit Alt Text.” Tap on it, and enter your description.

Adding Alt Text to Existing Posts:

1. Desktop: Go to the existing post containing the image you want to update. Click on the three dots in the top right corner of the post and select “Edit Post.” Hover over the image, click “Edit,” and choose “Alternative Text” to add or modify the description.
2. Mobile: Go to the post, and hold your finger on the photo until the photo is selected. Then, tap on the three dots in the top right corner, and select “Edit Alt Text”  to make your changes.

Bulk Editing for Page Managers:

If you manage a Facebook Page with numerous posts, manually updating alt text for each image can be time-consuming. While Facebook doesn’t currently offer a native bulk editing tool for alt text, third-party tools like Tailwind can help you manage this process efficiently.

Harnessing the Power of Tailwind

For marketers looking to supercharge their social media workflow, Tailwind offers a suite of powerful features, including an intuitive Alt Text Manager. This tool allows you to seamlessly add, edit, and manage alt text for all your Facebook images in one centralized location, saving you time and ensuring accessibility across your content calendar.

Crafting Compelling Alt Text: Best Practices and Expert Tips

Writing effective alt text is both an art and a science. Here’s your cheat sheet for success:

• Be Descriptive, Not Decorative: Focus on conveying the essential information contained within the image. Ask yourself: What’s happening in this image? What message am I trying to convey? Avoid vague descriptions like “a photo of…” or “an image of…”. For example, instead of saying “a photo of a dog,” you could say “a golden retriever puppy playing with a red ball in the park.”
• Context is Key: Consider the surrounding text and the overall message of your post. How does the image enhance or complement that message? Your alt text should provide context and clarity. If your post is about healthy eating, and the image is of a salad, your alt text could be “fresh garden salad with mixed greens and cherry tomatoes, promoting healthy eating habits.”
• Keywords Matter, But Don’t Stuff: Integrate relevant keywords naturally within your alt text, but avoid keyword stuffing. Focus on creating a clear and concise description that benefits both users and search engines. Overloading your alt text with keywords can harm your SEO and make the description less useful to users relying on screen readers.
• Brevity is Your Friend: Aim for alt text that’s around 125 characters or less. This ensures that screen readers can convey the information effectively without overwhelming the user.
• Proofread Like a Pro: Typos and grammatical errors can make your alt text confusing or even inaccessible. Always double-check your work before hitting that publish button. Consider using tools like Grammarly to catch errors before publishing.

Examples of Good vs. Bad Alt Text:

• Image: A group of friends laughing together at a coffee shop.
  • Bad Alt Text: “People hanging out.” (Too vague and doesn’t convey the emotion or setting)
  • Good Alt Text: “Three friends laughing and enjoying coffee at a cozy cafe.” (Descriptive, conveys mood and setting)
• Image: A banner promoting a summer sale with a discount code.
  • Bad Alt Text: “Sale banner.” (Doesn’t convey the urgency or call to action)
  • Good Alt Text: “Summer Sale! Get 20% off with code SUNSHINE20.” (Actionable, includes discount code)
• Image: A person using a laptop with code on the screen.
  • Bad Alt Text: “Computer screen.”
  • Good Alt Text: “Software developer coding a new app on a laptop.”

Advanced Strategies for Savvy Marketers

Ready to take your alt text game to the next level? Try these pro tips:

• A/B Test for Optimal Engagement: Experiment with different alt text variations to see which ones resonate best with your audience. Analyze your engagement metrics to identify patterns and optimize your approach. Use Facebook’s split testing features to determine which alt text descriptions lead to higher engagement or conversions.
• Weave in Your Brand Story: Use alt text to subtly reinforce your brand voice and messaging. For example, if your brand is known for its humor, inject some wit into your alt text descriptions. For instance, a bakery known for its playful tone might use alt text like “Our cookies are so good, even the cookie monster is jealous.”
• Strategic Calls to Action: When appropriate, incorporate a call to action within your alt text, especially if the image is linked to a product page or landing page.
• Tailwind for Multi-Platform Accessibility: Managing alt text across multiple social media platforms can be a challenge. Tailwind streamlines this process, allowing you to create, edit, and schedule posts with optimized alt text for Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest all in one place.

Measuring Success and Navigating Challenges

• Track Your Metrics: Pay attention to your Facebook Page Insights to see if there are any noticeable changes in engagement (likes, comments, shares) after implementing alt text. While alt text alone won’t magically skyrocket your engagement, it can contribute to a more positive and inclusive user experience, which can indirectly impact your metrics. Consider setting specific goals for accessibility improvements and monitor how they correlate with user engagement over time.
• Embrace Accessibility Tools: Familiarize yourself with tools and resources that can help you improve the accessibility of your content. There are browser extensions and online tools that can audit your website and social media profiles for accessibility issues, providing valuable insights and recommendations for improvement. Tools like WAVE Accessibility Extension³ or Axe by Deque Systems⁴ can help identify issues and suggest fixes.
• Finding the Balance: Strive for a balance between providing enough detail in your alt text without making it overly long or repetitive. Focus on conveying the essence of the image and its relevance to the surrounding content.

The Future of Alt Text and Inclusive Marketing

As technology advances, we can expect to see even more innovative solutions for improving digital accessibility. AI-powered alt text generators are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and social media platforms are constantly evolving their features to be more inclusive. Facebook and other platforms are investing in AI to improve automatic alt text, but human oversight remains crucial to ensure accuracy and empathy in descriptions.

It’s important to remember that technology is just one piece of the puzzle. The human touch—your thoughtful approach to crafting alt text—remains paramount. By staying informed about best practices, using available tools effectively, and approaching digital content with an accessibility-first mindset, you can create a more inclusive and engaging online experience for everyone.

Ready to Streamline Your Facebook Accessibility?

Tailwind is here to empower you on your journey toward more inclusive and impactful social media marketing. Try our Alt Text Manager for free and discover how easy it is to manage your Facebook alt text, schedule accessible content, and reach a wider audience. Sign up today and join a community of marketers committed to making the web accessible for all. Let’s build a more accessible online world together, one alt text at a time.

1. https://www.apple.com/accessibility/ ↩︎
2. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/strategy/brand-purpose#:~:text=To%20affinity%20and%20beyond,to%20those%20they%20don’t. ↩︎
3. https://wave.webaim.org/ ↩︎
4. https://www.deque.com/axe/ ↩︎