How to Hyperlink a Photo's Alt Description
When building, editing, and running a website, ensuring your site, text, and images can be easily found by searchers is crucial to success. In web programming language HTML, an image's code contains two key pieces of information: the source (src) and alternate image text (alt). The source contains a hyperlink to the image's location, and the alternate text describes the image. Changing your photo's "alt tag" --- an alternate description of the image --- is key to ensuring your images and supporting text can be found quickly and easily. Fortunately, this is easy to do and can be accomplished quickly.
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Instructions
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Find the image's alt tag in the HTML. It will look something like this: <img src="URL" alt="some_text"/>. The "src" refers to the image's location, and the hyperlink will need to be inserted in the quotations. The "alt" refers to the image's alternate text, and the quotations should contain descriptive words about the image's content.
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Choose and insert appropriate alternate image text. If the image contains a graphic of text --- for example, the name of your website, a product, or your signature --- the alt tag could just mimic the text, like "John Smith Designs" or "Your Name." If the image is a drawing, photograph, or other pure graphic, brainstorm words that accurately and succinctly describe the picture: "cow in field on sunny day," "John Smith Designs logo," or "shopping cart." Keep in mind that the alt tag may be displayed when the viewer's mouse is rolled over the image, will serve as a stand-in if the image fails to properly load, and will be read aloud to blind users utilizing assistive technology.
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Check that the "src" portion of the image tag --- the URL for the photo's actual location, which will create the hyperlink --- is accurate. When you upload an image into your digital publisher or hosting platform, a URL will be automatically created. If you move or delete an image, however, the URL may become inaccurate.
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References
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
