Close your eyes for a moment and imagine trying to browse your law firm's website without being able to see the screen. A photo of your office building — what does it show? A team picture of your attorneys — who is in it? An infographic about the legal process — what does it say? For the millions of people who use screen readers due to visual impairments, the answer to all of those questions depends entirely on something called alt text. And beyond accessibility, alt text also determines whether Google can understand and index your images. Without it, your images are invisible in more ways than one.
What alt text actually means
Alt text — short for alternative text — is a brief written description attached to every image on a website. You don't see it when you look at the page normally. It lives in the code behind the image and serves two essential purposes:
- Accessibility: Screen reader software reads the alt text aloud to describe images to visually impaired users. Without alt text, the screen reader either skips the image entirely or reads the image file name — which is usually something unhelpful like "IMG_4582.jpg."
- Search engines: Google can't "see" images the way humans do. It can't tell whether a photo shows your courtroom, your team, or a stock photo of a gavel. Alt text is how you tell Google what the image contains, which helps your images show up in Google Image Search and gives Google more context about your page content.
Think of alt text as a name tag for each image on your site. If someone can't see the image for any reason — they're using a screen reader, the image fails to load, or they're a search engine crawler — the alt text steps in to explain what's there.
Good alt text is concise and descriptive. It should describe what the image actually shows in plain language, typically in one sentence or a brief phrase. You don't need to start with "Image of" or "Photo of" — screen readers already announce that it's an image, so that's redundant.
Why this matters for your law firm
Alt text matters for law firms on three levels — legal, ethical, and practical:
- Accessibility is a legal obligation. This is a big one for law firms specifically. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been increasingly interpreted to cover websites. Lawsuits over inaccessible websites have surged in recent years, and law firms — of all businesses — should be leading by example. Missing alt text is one of the most common accessibility violations. It's not just a best practice; for many firms, it's a compliance requirement.
- It improves your Google rankings. Images with descriptive alt text give Google additional signals about what your page is about. If your practice area page about "car accident injuries" includes a well-captioned photo with alt text like "Attorney reviewing car accident case documents with client," Google connects that image to relevant searches. This helps your page rank for image searches and reinforces the overall topic relevance of the page.
- Missing alt text hurts user experience. When an image fails to load — which happens more than you'd think on slow mobile connections — the alt text appears in its place. Without it, visitors see a broken image icon and no explanation. With it, they still understand what was supposed to be there.
Let's compare examples. Bad alt text: "image1.jpg," "photo," "banner," or simply left blank. Good alt text: "Johnson & Associates law office building in downtown Denver," "Attorney Maria Chen meeting with a client in a conference room," or "Infographic showing the five steps of a personal injury claim."
There's one exception: purely decorative images — like background patterns or visual dividers — should have empty alt text (alt=""). This tells screen readers to skip them, since there's nothing meaningful to describe.
How to check if your site has this
Here's how to check your images for alt text, no technical expertise required:
- Hover over images. On some browsers, hovering over an image will display the alt text in a small tooltip. This doesn't work on all browsers, so use the next method for a definitive check.
- Right-click and inspect. Right-click on any image on your page and select "Inspect" or "Inspect Element." In the code panel that opens, look for the <img tag. Inside it, you should see alt="some description here". If the alt attribute is missing entirely, or if it says alt="" on a meaningful image, that image has no alt text.
- Check key images on your most important pages. Focus on your homepage hero image, attorney headshots, practice area images, and any infographics or diagrams. These are the images that matter most for both accessibility and SEO.
- Look for file-name alt text. Sometimes developers set the alt text to the file name by default. If you see alt text like "DSC_0394" or "shutterstock_12345678," that needs to be replaced with a real description.
For a broader check, Google Chrome has a free extension called "Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool" (WAVE) that highlights every image on a page and flags those missing alt text. It's a quick way to scan an entire page at once.
What to do next
Fixing your alt text is straightforward and doesn't require a developer for most website platforms:
- Inventory your key images. Start with your most important pages: homepage, practice area pages, attorney bios, and any blog posts with images. Make a list of every image that needs a description.
- Write clear, concise descriptions. Describe what the image shows as if you were explaining it to someone who can't see it. Be specific: "Attorney James Park in front of the Harris County Courthouse" is much better than "lawyer photo."
- Include relevant keywords naturally. If the image is on your personal injury page and it shows a car accident consultation, it's perfectly natural to mention that in the alt text. But don't stuff keywords — "personal injury lawyer car accident lawyer best attorney Dallas cheap lawyer" is spam, not alt text.
- Keep it under 125 characters. Screen readers may truncate longer alt text, and you want the full description to be heard. Be concise.
- Audit all images across your site at once. Going page by page works, but it's slow. LexGrow SEO's visibility audit automatically scans every image on your entire site and flags those missing alt text, those with file-name alt text, and those that are too long — giving you a complete fix-it list in minutes.
Adding alt text is one of those rare improvements that's good for everyone. It makes your site accessible to visitors with disabilities, it helps Google find and rank your images, and it protects your firm from potential ADA compliance issues. Set aside an afternoon to review your most important pages, and you'll have a more inclusive, more searchable website by the end of the day.