Crystal Ball checks covered

IMAGE_ALT_MISSING, MANY_EMPTY_ALT

Guide detail

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Practical explanations and page-specific steps. Recommended for most readers.

What the flag means

Crystal Ball flags images without an alt attribute and asks for review when many images use empty alt text. An empty value can be correct for decoration; meaningful images need an alternative that communicates their purpose to people who cannot see them.

Products, service examples, diagrams, staff photos, and location photos often need useful alternatives. Decorative sparkles should usually use an empty alt value so assistive technology can ignore them. Judge the image by its role, not by a demand to fill every field.

Common causes

Common causes include uploaded images with blank alt fields, gallery images, icons from templates, product photos added in bulk, and decorative assets that are correctly empty but counted by strict scanners.

What to check next

Check whether the issue appears on one page or every page using the same template. Review recent content, theme, plugin, deployment, and server changes, then compare the live output with a known-good page.

How to fix it

Confirm the warning first and make a backup before editing the live site. If the change involves templates, code, DNS, redirects, or server settings, switch to Intermediate or ask for help before proceeding.

  • Custom HTML/static: Add a useful alt attribute to meaningful images. Use alt="" only for decorative images. The U.S. Section 508 guide explains meaningful alternative text.
  • WordPress: Open the Media Library or image block and fill in the Alt Text field. WordPress documents the Media Library alt text field.
  • Shopify: Add alt text to product media and important theme images. Shopify documents adding alt text to media.
  • Wix: Select the image or gallery image and add alt text in the image settings. Wix documents image and gallery alt text.
  • Webflow: Select the image and add alt text, or use the Audit panel for missing alt text. Webflow documents including alt text on images.

Need help?

If the fix gets murky, visit Support and send the details. Bug reports and Crystal Ball questions are free support. Implementation and development work may be paid support, but we will tell you clearly before anything becomes paid. No surprise invoices from the tower.