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Alt text is the short description attached to an image behind the scenes — it doesn't show on the page, but it's read aloud by screen readers and used by search engines to understand what an image contains. Getting it right helps both accessibility and SEO at the same time.
What alt text actually does
Screen reader software reads alt text aloud to visually impaired visitors instead of the image itself, so it needs to convey the same information a sighted visitor would get from looking at the picture. Google also uses it to understand image content, since it can't "see" a photo the way a person can.
How to write it well
Describe what's actually in the image, specifically and briefly — "woman using a laptop at a cafe table in Accra" tells you far more than "laptop image". Keep it under about 125 characters, since that's roughly where most screen readers cut off.
Don't stuff keywords
Writing alt text like "web hosting Ghana cheap hosting best hosting Accra" helps nobody — it reads badly to screen reader users and search engines can identify keyword stuffing easily, which can hurt rather than help your rankings.
Don't start with "image of" or "picture of"
Screen readers already announce that the element is an image before reading the alt text, so adding "image of" at the start is redundant — just describe the content directly.
When to leave alt text empty
Purely decorative images — a background pattern, a divider graphic, an icon that repeats information already in nearby text — should have an empty alt attribute (alt="") rather than a forced description. This tells screen readers to skip over it instead of announcing something unhelpful.
File names matter too
Before you even get to alt text, name the image file itself something descriptive — "accra-office-team-photo.jpg" rather than "IMG_4821.jpg" — since search engines also read file names as a minor ranking signal.
Where to add it in WordPress
Click any image in the Media Library or block editor, and you'll find an "Alt Text" field in the details panel on the right — fill this in every time you upload a new image, since WordPress doesn't generate it automatically.
Key takeaway: Write alt text for the person listening, not the search engine reading it — a clear, honest description of what's actually in the image will always outperform a keyword-stuffed one, for both accessibility and SEO.