"Stuff keywords into alt text to rank."

"Stuff keywords into alt text to rank."

Tested. Backfired slightly.

A recipe site rewrote alt text on 2,000 images from descriptive ("sliced sourdough on a wooden board") to keyword-loaded ("best sourdough bread recipe easy homemade sourdough"). Goal: image-search and on-page keyword juice. Control: 2,000 images left descriptive.

Four months later, image-search traffic to the stuffed group fell 8%. The descriptive control rose 3%. Google's image understanding rewards alt text that describes the image for accessibility — the stuffed alts described a keyword strategy, not a picture, and matched fewer real visual queries.

Alt text exists for screen readers first. The SEO benefit is a side effect of doing that well. Keyword-stuffing it serves neither the blind user nor the algorithm trying to understand the photo.

Write what the image shows. The descriptive group won by accident, which is the whole point.