How to Fix: Infographics have text alt

Infographics have text alt sits in the Image SEO group of the audit, and it is a lower-priority optimization — address it after the more critical issues are handled. That said, it is one of the easiest wins to leave on the table, because an infographic is often the most information-dense thing on a page and also the most completely invisible to anything that cannot see it.

What this check is really asking

An infographic packs charts, statistics, steps, and comparisons into a single image. To a human that is efficient and attractive. To a search crawler and a screen reader it is a blank rectangle — every word baked into that graphic is text they cannot read. This check verifies that the meaning locked inside your infographics is also available as real text: a genuinely descriptive alt attribute at minimum, and ideally supporting text on the page that conveys the same information. When it fails, you have published valuable content in a format that search engines and assistive technology simply cannot access.

Why it matters for SEO

Two payoffs. First, image search: a well-described infographic can rank in Google Images and drive traffic on its own, but only if the alt text and surrounding copy tell Google what it depicts. Second, and larger, the topical signal — all those statistics and terms trapped in the graphic contribute nothing to your page’s relevance while they live only as pixels. Surface them as text and you strengthen the whole page for the very queries the infographic was built to answer. And because a short alt attribute cannot carry a complex infographic, this check quietly pushes you toward the better practice of pairing the image with real on-page text, which helps far more than alt text alone ever could.

How I would fix it

Difficulty Level: MEDIUM – This fix requires some technical knowledge or familiarity with WordPress settings and plugins.

Estimated Time: varies

1. Write alt text that describes, not labels. “Infographic” is useless. Summarize what the graphic actually shows — its subject and its headline takeaway — in a concise, honest sentence. In WordPress, that is the Alt Text field on the image block.
2. Put the real content in the body. For anything data-rich, reproduce the key figures, steps, or comparisons as actual on-page text near the image. This is the step that does the heavy lifting; alt text alone cannot represent a complex graphic.
3. Consider an HTML table or list for data. If the infographic is essentially a chart or a ranked list, an accompanying table or list gives both users and crawlers the underlying numbers in a form they can read and even re-use.
4. Do not keyword-stuff the alt. Describe the image truthfully. Cramming keywords into alt text is an old trick that helps nobody and reads as spam to both Google and screen readers.
5. Batch-audit your existing images. Use an SEO plugin’s media report to find images with missing or empty alt attributes and work through the infographics first, since they carry the most trapped information.

The reframe that makes this worth doing

Stop thinking of alt text as a compliance checkbox and start thinking of it as recovering content you already paid to produce. Someone researched, designed, and published every one of those infographics — and then let all of that value sit in a format search engines cannot read. Adding descriptive text is not extra work bolted onto finished content; it is finishing the content. That mental shift is why I would do this even though the check is marked lower priority: the effort is small, and you are unlocking work you have already done rather than creating anything new.

Recommended Tools & Plugins

• Yoast SEO – Comprehensive SEO plugin that flags images missing alt text in its content analysis
• Rank Math – Feature-rich SEO plugin that can audit and even auto-populate missing alt attributes
• Google Search Console – Free tool to track how your images perform in Google Images over time
• SEO Roadmap – Complete SEO audit and action plan tool to keep your image SEO on track

This guide is part of the SEO Roadmap knowledge base – your complete resource for WordPress SEO optimization.