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alt text — ranking signal or accessibility only? getting flatly opposite answers

Questions & help 3,870
Olivia James

Half the posts I read call alt text a ranking powerhouse and the other half say Pinterest built the field for screen readers and it does nothing for search. I fill it in anyway because it's ten seconds and accessibility stands on its own. But I'd like to know whether to put real effort into it or just describe the image. Has anyone seen a pin surface for a phrase that exists only in alt text and nowhere else?

# accessibility # alt-text # keywords

3 replies

Priya R

I fill it in and assume it does nothing for search. When the field appeared it was framed around screen readers and I've never seen Pinterest describe it as a ranking input since. The "ranking powerhouse" posts are mostly paraphrasing each other and none of them cite anything.

Emma Wilson

Tried more or less your exact test last spring. Put an unusual long phrase in alt text only, nowhere else, on eight pins, then searched it weekly. Never surfaced. That's not proof of a null result, it's eight pins, but it's the closest thing to evidence I've got and it points one direction.

tashawrites

Do it regardless. Worst case you spent ten seconds and made the platform marginally usable for someone with a screen reader. Best case it's a weak signal you got for free. Just don't restructure your workflow around it.

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