One thing that can REALLY spice up your blog posts is images and videos related to your topic. Adding a video to your blog post is a super easy way to share all types of content you create whether it’s from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest all in one place. Plus, videos keep your readers engaged and increase the time they spend on your page meaning this is a huge SEO win! (Here’s more on how to make your blog posts more engaging.)
But, before you start adding videos to your blog posts, it’s important to know the secret behind getting the full SEO benefits adding alt text. If you’ve been reading the InfluencerSEO blog for a while, then you probably already know how important it is to add alt text to images. It’s just as important to add it to your videos too! Not only does it boost your SEO and increase user engagement, but it also makes your website more inclusive and accessible for visually impaired individuals.
Getting into the technical parts of SEO can be a bit overwhelming, which is exactly why we have dedicated this blog post to teaching you how to add alt text for videos on your website. Let’s dive in!
What is Alt Text for Videos?
Before we get into how to add alt text to videos, we first need to answer the question, what is alt text? Alt text (also known as alternative text, img src, or alt attributes) conveys the context of a complex image or video using words. It is a straightforward description of no more than 125 characters that explains what the video is about.
Originally, alt text’s intent was to expand web accessibility to the visually impaired, providing written context for screen readers to communicate with the site visitor. Adding alt text to your videos and images ensures your blog is ADA-compliant and inclusive to all readers. Alternative text is also helpful if a video does not show up properly. Instead of the video playing, the reader can see a summary of it through the alt text.
Though the accessibility side is amazing, alt text has another purpose now. As you can imagine, web crawlers that catalog your web pages can’t really interpret visual content just text. So, alt text can help search engines interpret all the visual elements of your blog posts. This way, those web crawlers can confirm that your non-text content is relevant, engaging, and enhances the overall post. This makes you more likely to rank higher on the search engines results pages!
Do Videos Need Alt Text?
If you want your blog to be ADA-compliant and accessible for all users, then your videos need alt next. Making your website more user-friendly and accessible should be enough reason to add alt text to your videos, but it can also help benefit your SEO!
Benefits of Alt Text for Videos
Improve Accessibility
Alt text is especially helpful for those who are visually impaired using screen readers to browse the internet. As they scroll to a video in your blog, the screen reader will communicate the alternative text explaining the video’s content to the user, ensuring they understand the purpose of the video and its message.
Enhance SEO
Search engines like Google and Bing “see” your video content, but they also use alt text to understand what the video is about. When you write a well-crafted, keyword-rich alt text, your video and blog may rank higher on the SERPs since search engines will deem it higher quality than content without visual info (or, without visual info that the web crawlers can interpret!)
Increase User Experience
Some users may not have the bandwidth to load videos. This shouldn’t limit them from understanding what the video is about, though! By adding alt text to your videos, visitors who cannot play the video or see it can understand the context and why it is included in your blog post, creating a far better user experience.
How to Add Alt Text for Videos
How to Add Alt Text on WordPress
There are a few ways to add alt text to videos in WordPress. (Which is our fave platform for bloggers!)
Method #1
The first method is to use the Media Library. Navigate to the Media section of your WordPress dashboard and upload your video file or select an existing one. In the Alt Text box, you can write a short description of your video content.
Method #2
The second method is to use a plugin for video SEO, like Yoast Video SEO or Rank Math. These tools allow you to edit the metadata of your videos, add alt text, and write captions beneath your videos.
Method #3
If you are embedding a video from YouTube or Vimeo, it is not possible to add alt text to the block. However, you can still add a caption underneath the video to use keywords to explain the video’s content.
How to Add Alt Text on Squarespace
If you manage your blog on Squarespace, adding alt text for videos is fairly straightforward.
For videos that are embedded from YouTube or Vimeo, you will add them to a Video Block while editing your blog post. Simply paste the URL to embed. Then, you can add alt text either in the Video Block settings or add a text block under the video to write a caption.
If you’re uploading a video directly to Squarespace, then you can use code injection to write your alt text. For this, you will go to Settings > Advanced > Code Injection and insert a <video> tag to include the aria-label attribute. Between the quotation marks, you may add your alternative text.
How to Add Alt Text on Instagram
SEO is also relevant in social media, especially Instagram. Adding alt text to your videos can help the algorithm understand what your content is about and push it in front of the right audience.
To add alt text to your video before publishing, click on Advanced Settings and select Write Alt Text in the Accessibility section. Add your text and click Save.
If your video is already published, you can click on the three dots in the top right corner and click Edit. At the bottom, you will click Edit Alt Text and enter your text.
Need more on this? Read our post on Instagram SEO!
How to Add Alt Text on Pinterest
When creating a pin on Pinterest, you can add alt text to your video pins.
To upload your pin, click on Create Pin. In the section that says Alt Text, you can write your description and click Publish.
Much like Insta, Pinterest SEO can be super helpful for making your content more discoverable to people browsing in your niche. Don’t even underestimate the power of SEO!
Are you writing quality alt text for your videos?
Writing alt text for videos can be slightly different than alt text for images. But, after reading this blog post, you have all the information you need to optimize your videos, make your website more accessible for individuals who are visually impaired, and give your content a bit of SEO boost using alt text. Of course, good site health and a high rank comes from more than one website change, so make sure you’re super well-versed in good-SEO practices to get the biggest gains!
If you want some help writing high-quality alt text for your videos and you want a totally comprehensive SEO boost from the experts, InfluenerSEO has you covered! Check out our services page for all of our SEO packages to help your site gain more traffic, convert more leads, and rank in top search engine results.
Jordan Becerra, founder and Lead SEO Strategist at InfluencerSEO, has spent almost 15 years in the creator internet space, the last nine building InfluencerSEO into the go-to SEO partner for content creators, with 500+ creators served from pre-launch to massive publication. She learned creator monetization and community building strategy from the inside working for Lauryn Bosstick of The Skinny Confidential prior to founding InfluencerSEO, so she understands both halves of the game: how search actually works AND how creators actually build a strong community online and make money. Her job now is to stay ahead of where search engine optimization is going, especially as AI rewrites the rules, and to make sure the creators she works with get there first.
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