Image Alt Audit: Find and Fix Missing Alt Text on Any Website

Image alt text is one of the most commonly skipped SEO and accessibility fixes on the web. This actor scans any webpage, reads every img tag, and tells you exactly which images have missing, empty, or too-short alt attributes. Paste in a single URL or a whole list and get a row-by-row breakdown in seconds.

What data does this actor extract?

Each row in the output dataset covers one image on one page. You get the page URL, the image URL, the exact alt text (or nothing if it is absent), a status flag, and the raw HTML tag for context.

Field	Type	Description
pageUrl	string	URL of the audited page
imageUrl	string	src attribute of the image
altText	string	Alt attribute value (empty string if blank or missing)
altStatus	string	missing, empty, short, or ok
altLength	integer	Character count of the alt text
isDecorative	boolean	True when alt="" marks a decorative image (WCAG H67)
htmlTag	string	Full HTML of the img element
pageTitle	string	Page title, for quick identification
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp

What the status codes mean

• missing: The img tag has no alt attribute at all. Search engines and screen readers get nothing.
• empty: alt="" is present. This is correct for purely decorative images (WCAG H67), so the isDecorative field is set to true.
• short: Alt text exists but is under the configured minimum length (default 10 characters). Catches placeholders like "img" or "photo".
• ok: Alt text meets the length threshold. Only included in output when includeOkImages is true.

Use cases

• SEO auditing: find images with no alt text dragging down your search rankings without clicking through every page manually
• Accessibility compliance: check pages against WCAG 2.1 image text alternatives before a compliance review
• Content inventory: get a full image inventory across multiple pages by enabling includeOkImages
• Pre-launch QA: validate image alt coverage before pushing a new site or redesign live
• Ongoing monitoring: run on a schedule and pipe results into Google Sheets or Slack to catch regressions

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
url	string	required	Single page URL to audit
urls	array	[]	Additional URLs to audit (one per line)
maxUrls	integer	100	Maximum pages to process per run
minAltLength	integer	10	Alt text shorter than this is flagged as short
includeOkImages	boolean	false	Include images with adequate alt text in output
timeoutSecs	integer	300	Total actor timeout in seconds
requestTimeoutSecs	integer	30	Per-request timeout in seconds
proxyConfiguration	object	Datacenter (Anywhere)	Proxy type and location for requests. Supports Datacenter, Residential, Special, and custom proxies. Optional.

Example input

{
    "url": "https://apify.com",
    "urls": ["https://apify.com/about", "https://apify.com/pricing"],
    "maxUrls": 50,
    "minAltLength": 10,
    "includeOkImages": false,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

How it works

1. Collects all URLs from url and urls, deduplicates them, and applies the maxUrls cap
2. Fetches each page with a realistic browser User-Agent header, following redirects
3. Parses every img element in the HTML using BeautifulSoup
4. Classifies each image as missing, empty, short, or ok based on its alt attribute
5. Pushes results to the Apify dataset (skipping ok images unless includeOkImages is enabled)

Integrations

Connect Image Alt Audit with other apps using Apify integrations. You can send results directly to Google Sheets, trigger Slack notifications when issues are found, or connect via Make or Zapier to fit into any existing workflow. Use webhooks to trigger downstream actions the moment a run finishes.

FAQ

How many pages can it process per run? Up to 1000, controlled by maxUrls. The default is 100 to keep costs predictable. For large sites, run multiple smaller batches.

Does it crawl the whole site or just the pages I give it? It audits only the URLs you provide. It does not follow links or crawl child pages automatically.

Why is alt="" flagged as decorative and not a problem? An empty alt string is the correct way to mark decorative images per WCAG 2.1 technique H67. Screen readers skip them, which is the intended behavior. The actor records them with isDecorative: true so you can verify they really are decorative.

Can it handle JavaScript-rendered pages? No. This actor fetches raw HTML. Images loaded by JavaScript after page render will not appear. For JS-heavy sites, a Playwright-based actor would be needed.

What counts as a "short" alt text? Anything under minAltLength characters (default 10). This catches common placeholder values like "image", "photo", or "img1" that technically have an alt attribute but add no meaningful context.

Start finding missing alt text today

Drop in a URL and run it. The first run takes under a minute on most pages. Results go straight into your Apify dataset, ready to export or pipe into any tool you already use for SEO or accessibility work.