Image SEO · Accessibility
Alt, title & caption do three different jobs
All three sit on an image, but search engines and screen readers treat them very differently. Here's how each attribute behaves — and how much weight it actually carries.
<img alt="…">
Alt text
Strong SEO weight
Primary image ranking signal
Visibility
Hidden — shows only if the image fails to load
Screen readers
Read aloud automatically
Purpose: Describes the image for accessibility and search.
<img title="…">
Title text
Minimal SEO weight
Largely ignored by crawlers
Visibility
Hidden — tooltip appears on hover
Screen readers
Optional — often skipped
Purpose: Supplementary, nice-to-have detail.
<figcaption>
Caption
Moderate SEO weight
Indexed as regular page content
Visibility
Visible — sits below the image
Screen readers
Read aloud as regular text
Purpose: Visible context every reader sees.