Social image alt text
Pages can specify an image to show when they are shared on social networks and in messaging apps. Silktide checks that pages which specify a social image also provide a short written description of it, so people who cannot see the image still understand what it shows.
The description is set with an tag in the page's , alongside the image itself:
<meta property="og:image" content="https://www.example.com/images/team.jpg" />
<!-- Alt text describing the social image -->
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="Five students working together in a classroom" />
Why this matters
When a shared link's image has no description, people using a hear nothing useful about it - the preview is just a headline and a mystery. Platforms that support on shared images read it from this tag, so providing it makes your shared content more accessible at no visible cost.
How to fix it
- In your , look for the social image alt text, image description, or alternative text field for the page's sharing settings.
- Describe what the image shows and why it is relevant, in one short phrase. Use "Students working together in a classroom" rather than a file name like "image1.jpg" or a label like "hero banner".
How Silktide tests this
- Test each page that could be shared - pages search engines and platforms are allowed to index.
- Find the page's social image (its
og:imagetag). - If the page specifies a social image but its
og:image:alttag is missing or empty, report the page. - Pages with no social image at all are not reported here - that is covered by the Social image check.