Alt Text for Game Screenshots That Helps Readers and SEO

Open the media library on almost any gaming community site and you will find hundreds of files named screenshot-0412.png with an empty description field. On a typical patch notes post with 12 images, that is 12 chances to help readers and search engines that were simply skipped. Writing alt text for game screenshots takes about 20 seconds per image once you have a system, and it pays back in image search traffic, accessibility and fewer confused readers on slow connections.

I run the publishing side for a couple of fan sites, and the hardest part was never the writing. It was deciding what to say about a picture of a boss fight that already has the boss name in the caption. This guide is the system our volunteers use now, with the mistakes we made first.

What Alt Text Does on a Gaming Site

Alt text is the short description that replaces an image when it cannot be seen. A screen reader user hears it. A reader on a train with images blocked sees it. Image search reads it as one of the strongest clues about what the picture shows. On gaming sites, where screenshots carry real information like map locations, stat screens and build layouts, a missing description means a missing piece of the article.

It is not a place for keywords. Search engines have been ignoring stuffed alt attributes for years, and a screen reader reading "elden ring boss guide elden ring tips best boss" out loud is a terrible experience.

A Simple Formula for Alt Text for Game Screenshots

Our volunteers follow one pattern: what is shown, plus the detail that matters for this article. That second half is the part people skip.

• Weak: "Screenshot of the map"
• Better: "Map of the northern marsh with the hidden forge marked near the broken bridge"
• Weak: "Character stats"
• Better: "Level 40 ranger stat screen showing 32 dexterity and 18 vigor"

Aim for roughly 80 to 125 characters. Many screen readers handle longer text fine, but anything past two sentences usually means you are writing the article inside the image tag. Skip "image of" and "picture of" because the reader already knows it is an image.

When Alt Text Should Be Empty

Here is where I disagree with a lot of SEO checklists. Many plugins flag every image without alt text as an error, and admins respond by filling every field, including decorative banners, divider graphics and the same logo repeated in every post. That makes pages worse for screen reader users, who now hear "decorative swirl" between every section.

Purely decorative images should have an empty alt attribute, which tells assistive technology to skip them. In WordPress, leaving the field blank in the block editor does exactly that. The rule we use: if removing the image would lose no information, leave the alt empty. If the image is the only place a piece of information appears, describe that information.

Screenshots That Contain Text

Patch notes, item tooltips and in game messages are often posted as screenshots because copying them is awkward. That text is invisible to search and to screen readers unless you write it out.

Short text

If the screenshot shows a tooltip of one or two lines, put the key words in the alt text: "Tooltip for the Ember Ring: plus 15 percent fire damage, minus 5 percent defence."

Long text

For a full patch notes panel, write a brief alt text such as "Patch 2.3 notes panel listing weapon balance changes" and put the full text in the article body below the image. That also gives search engines the text they need, which helps the post rank for the patch number people actually type.

File Names, Captions and Titles

Alt text works best alongside two other fields that cost nothing.

Do not copy the caption into the alt text word for word. A screen reader will read both, so the user hears the same sentence twice. Let the caption add context and the alt describe what is visible. The image title attribute, by contrast, is mostly ignored, so do not spend time on it.

Fixing an Old Media Library Without Burning Out

A site with five years of posts may have 3,000 images without descriptions. Nobody fixes that in a weekend, and trying to is how volunteer teams quit. What worked for us:

1. Export your top 50 posts by traffic and fix their images first
2. Mark any image that appears in more than one post, such as logos, as decorative once
3. Add a line to the publishing checklist so every new post goes out with alt text
4. Give each volunteer ten old posts a month, not a deadline for the whole library

Avoid plugins that generate alt text automatically from the file name. You end up with "screenshot 0412" across thousands of images, which is barely better than nothing. If you want a broader cleanup, pair this with a pass on your meta descriptions, which I covered in how to write meta descriptions that earn clicks. Also keep image file sizes in check while you are there; huge PNG screenshots are a common reason gaming pages load slowly, and converting them to compressed JPG or WebP often cuts each file by 70 percent or more.

FAQ

Does alt text actually help a page rank?

It helps the image rank in image search and gives the page another clear signal about its topic. It will not lift a thin article on its own, but on guide posts with many screenshots the image search traffic adds up.

Should I include the game name in every alt text?

Only when it is useful. On a site about one game, repeating its name in every description adds nothing. On a multi game site, naming the game once in the first image helps.

What about GIFs and short video clips?

Describe the action and the result, for example "Player dodges the tail sweep by rolling toward the boss." Videos also need a text summary or captions in the post body.

The Practical Takeaway

Use one formula, what is shown plus why it matters here, leave decorative images empty, and write out any text trapped inside a screenshot. Start with your 50 busiest posts and add alt text to the publishing checklist so the backlog stops growing. More practical site fixes are in the web tips section.