Verify All Images Have Descriptive Alt Text

Task Library

Audits every image on the site for meaningful, descriptive alt text so images are accessible, indexable, and reinforce each page's topic.

Category: Website QA Audit

Use this when running Layer 2 (Content Architecture Checks) of the Website QA Audit – empty or "IMG_4032" alt text wastes an accessibility and SEO signal on every image.

Inputs

  • Site URL plus a full page list (XML sitemap or crawl export)
  • Screaming Frog (Images report with "Missing Alt Text" filter) or WordPress Media Library access
  • The audit report/spreadsheet for logging results

Steps

  1. Crawl the site with Screaming Frog and open the Images report filtered to "Missing Alt Text" and "Alt Text Over 100 Characters" for the full inventory.
  2. Flag every content image with empty alt text (purely decorative theme graphics may use empty alt deliberately – note them separately, don't fail them).
  3. Review the alt text that does exist: it must describe what's in the image in plain language – fail filename-style ("DSC_1024"), keyword-stuffed, or generic ("image", "photo") values.
  4. Spot-check key templates by inspecting <img> tags in DevTools to confirm what the crawler reported.
  5. Fix or queue fixes in the WordPress Media Library and in-page blocks (Media Library alt only applies to new insertions – existing placements need in-post edits).
  6. Log total images, failures, and fixes in the audit report.

Definition of done (QA checklist)

  • 100% of content images carry descriptive, human-readable alt text – zero empty, filename, or stuffed values
  • Decorative-image exceptions explicitly listed, not silently skipped
  • Image inventory and fix list logged in the audit report, linked back to /website-qa-audit

Example(s)

  • Example needed – run the Meta-Article Prompt after first real run.

File in the zip: skills/website-qa-audit/verify-all-images-have-descriptive-alt-text.md. Download the Task Library zip.

Index: Task Library. Article guidelines.

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