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How to Write Effective Alt Text

November 9, 2023

Alternative text (alt text) is an important part of website optimization. But how do you write it effectively, for the people with visual impairments and for the search engines? Follow this step-by-step guide to writing good alt text.

Examine your image closely

What is happening in the image? What information is it conveying? What would a viewer be missing if they couldn’t see this image?

Mention the specific image medium

Your viewer’s screen reading program will tell them that it is an image, but not what kind. Is it a photo, an illustration, or an infographic? This detail will help your audience understand your content much better and take action if it calls for one. When writing alternative text, be as specific as possible, instead of simply stating “image of…”

Include all important elements

Consider everything, even what is being implied. Is the image conveying a mood, activity, etc. not mentioned elsewhere?

If the image has text, write it out

Graphics, posters, and other designed image content frequently feature copy. Make sure to write it out when working on your alt text.

Consider the image’s layout

If the layout is essential, include details about it in your alt text.

Consider uX while writing alt text

Keeping user experience in mind will help you determine which elements add to the website experience and which don’t. For instance, decorative images that serve no function beyond aesthetics do not require alternative text.

By following these steps, you can ensure that your visual content is accessible to everyone and helps your site rank higher in search results. Learn more about Alt Text Best Practices.

Need help reaching your digital advertising goals? Connect with us to learn more.

Alt Text Best Practices

What is alternative text (alt text) and how to use it effectively?

Although a picture is worth a thousand words, it may be worth nothing to someone unable to see it. Without the proper parameters in place, disabled or visually impaired people may not be able to access the content from images inserted in webpages or posted on social media. This leads people to miss out on vital information about you, your company, and content. A solution to this issue? Alternative text.

What is Alternative Text?

Alternative text (or alt text) is a form of descriptive text used to detail the appearance and function of an image. This text is then read aloud to visually impaired or disabled users. It also can be utilized in place of an image if it fails to load, as well as indexed by search engines to understand the contents of your page, making your images appear higher in related searches.

The Benefits of Using Alternative Text

Accessibility

The biggest benefit of using alt text is the accessibility aspect. The inclusion of an image on a webpage, an article, or wherever it may be, denotes some level of importance or relevance to the information being conveyed. In the case of infographics, charts, and images with texts, such information could be vital to a person’s understanding of content, and if they’re unable to see it, they won’t process the information and/or take action as needed. By implementing the use of alternative text, any viewer, regardless of disability, could access all of your material, helping them access your content in its entirety.

Search Engine Optimization Ranking

Alternative text is also beneficial for SEO purposes. Having alt text on your photos allows search engines to determine what your photos portray, which can lead to enhanced ranking, and images/content appearing higher in search results.

Alternative Text Examples: Good and Bad

Some people fall into the trap of using alternative text for “keyword stuffing,” or trying to bring their image higher up in search results by applying as many words as they think will appear in a related search. This approach does not take into account the purpose of alt text for the visually impaired and therefore does not fit the accessibility standard.

An example of keyword stuffing is alt text that looks like this:

“Young child smiling at the camera, sitting in a snowy frozen plane of snow and ice during winter or Christmas with their arm around a husky dog. Mountains, skiing, snowboarding, sledding, hat and gloves, snowball fight, blue ski jacket, yellow or green snow pants.”

Good alt text is quick, to the point, and describes the image at hand. For example:

“A young child wearing winter gear sits in the snow and smiles at the camera with their arm around a husky dog.”

Alternative text is an integral part of making your content accessible, as well as a helpful way to make your content appear more relevant in search results. Read this blog for a step-by-step guide to writing good alt text, and take advantage of this tool to help your content reach a broader audience.

Learn more about How to Write Effective Alt Text. Need help reaching your digital advertising goals? Connect with us to learn more.

Threads App: Do You Need to Use It?

November 1, 2023

Threads has been around for a few months now. So, is it worth using or not?

In July of 2023, Mark Zuckerberg and his team at META created a new microblogging platform—Threads. Attached to the Instagram app, Threads allows users to share real-time updates in the form of 500-character posts, links, photos, and videos up to five minutes long.

If you or your business aren’t on Threads yet, the question remains: should you be? There are a few things to consider:

1. Who is Your Audience?

When thinking about venturing into new platforms, one thing to consider is the audience you’re marketing to. Threads was created in response to decreasing numbers on X (previously known as “Twitter”), as META was looking to capitalize on users searching for a new place to engage in open conversation. The audience Threads attracts is primarily young, mostly Gen Z. If that doesn’t sound like your audience, Threads may not be the right choice for your business.

2. What Content Does Your Audience Engage With?

Take into consideration what content and platforms your audience already enjoys. Is your company active on X? Is microblogging something they are receptive to and apt to interact with? Do they interact more with visual content, such as that found on Instagram? Figuring out what form of media fits your audience’s interests can help you to identify if a new social platform such as Threads is worth investing time in or not.

3. What Are the Benefits of Using New Platforms?

When deciding if a new form of social media is right for your business, it is important to look at how the features of the platform would benefit you and slot in with your pre-existing social media. Threads allows you to connect with your Instagram followers but in a new way. You can engage with all of your same audience, but with less of an emphasis on the visual content.

For example, if your business’ Instagram has high engagement but utilizes a curated feed, Threads would be a way to communicate information, photos, or ideas that don’t fit into your normal posts, but will still reach that same, active audience. Using Threads can also cut out the middle man when it comes to linked content, allowing your links to live within their own posts and get more interaction and engagement.

4. Is This a Trend, or a Long-Term Solution?

The last thing to take into consideration before opening a new account is the cycle of trends. When platforms are first launched, they tend to get a lot of interaction because of their newness. Early reports on Threads indicate that its numbers are dwindling already since its initial launch, and will likely continue on a downward trend. Creating new social media is a large time investment––think of the strategy, graphics, copy, and nurturing your follower base.All of this may not be worth it if the app does not show longevity. With an 80% drop in daily users, Threads might not be the most successful platform to jump into without a specific reason.

If you, however, decide that Threads is right for your business, it will offer an entirely new space to interact with your audience. So, now is as good time as any to start brainstorming ways you could diversify your content on this new platform.

Still have questions? We’re here to help you reach your audience and navigate social media advertising. Connect with us to learn more.

Google’s Changes to FAQ and HowTo Results: What Website Owners Need to Know

October 10, 2023

As of September 2023, Google reduced the visibility of FAQ and HowTo information in its search results. If you haven’t seen the impact of this decision on your website’s traffic yet, here is everything digital marketers and website owners should know if considering rethinking their strategy.

FAQ Results

Google now limits the regular display of FAQ-rich results to well-known and authoritative websites, primarily in the government and health sectors. Google’s algorithm will determine which websites fall into these categories.

HowTo Results

Attempting to simplify search results, Google no longer shows HowTo rich results on desktop or mobile devices. For this reason, this search result type has significantly lost its value.

What Changes Do You Need to Make

If your site features structured data, you don’t have to proactively remove it. Though it has no visible effects in Google Search, it’s not going to cause any problems either. FAQ and HowTo Schema markup may also continue to be useful for other search engines, aiding in content indexing and rich result display in SERPs.

Impact on Website Traffic

Google doesn’t consider this global update a ranking change, so the effects of FAQ’s and HowTo’s reduced visibility remain to be fully felt. Most likely, the removal of these sections from SERPs will lead to more search results displayed on a single screen, increasing the competition for clicks. Website owners who currently employ FAQ and HowTo Schema markup should prepare for potential traffic fluctuations, which may vary based on context and the type of website you have.

Staying up-to-date on Google’s updates and closely monitoring your website’s performance can help you effectively adapt to the evolving search result dynamics. And with 5 Horizons, you can always stay on top of digital marketing industry trends.

10 Things We’ve Discovered Running a Digital Marketing Agency in 10 Years of Business

September 6, 2023

This September, 5 Horizons is excited to celebrate 10 years of business! This last decade has been full of growth and learning. We’ve worked with nearly 100 clients in over 10 different industries.

From higher education and senior living, to real estate and healthcare, we have delivered cutting-edge websites, strategic campaigns, and eye-catching designs. Our team has grown into a powerhouse of data, strategy, and creative experts, constantly pushing the boundaries of modern aesthetics and techniques.

With a decade of experience, we’ve compiled a list of our top 10 lessons that have kept our company strong:

1. Always Keep Learning

Technology and media are always changing, so it’s important to keep an eye on new software, tools, and trends. There will always be something new to learn, test, or explore. Don’t let complacency stop you from growing.

2. Keep An Eye On The Trends

Knowing your audience and what is catching their eye will help you jump on the trends that will make the biggest splash. What works for the masses may not always work for your business model, but it’s smart to keep an eye on what trends are taking center stage. Specifically, pay attention to the content that resonates most with your unique audience.

3. Blaze Your Own Trail

On the other hand, trends come and go every day. Never be afraid to try something new or push the boundaries with new techniques. Your brand, voice, style, and quality of work are what set you apart from your competitors. Don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled.

4. Client Communication is Key

The key to successful client relationships is clear and consistent communication. Honoring the partnership you have with your clients will always pay off with trust and loyalty. Digital marketing isn’t magic, but establishing a healthy client partnership will allow you to work together to find success.

5. Lean On Your Community

As a company that has grown from four employees to 20, our community of friends, family, and professional colleagues have been our foundation for success. We are proud to be located in the greater Boston area, nestled in the South Shore city of Braintree. This local pride gives us a deeper understanding of legacy and commitment that many of our clients relate with.

6. Never Stop Building Your Network

You never know where you’ll meet your next client. Be kind, courteous, and open to new connections wherever you are. Don’t shy away from talking about the company, the work, or the team culture––you could be speaking to a future client, referral, or employee.

7. Play the Long Game

Some clients take years to manifest from casual encounters to dedicated partners. You never know when a brief conversation could loop back around years later to become a lucrative connection. Stay in touch when you’re able and let them know you’re always open to a conversation when they’re ready.

8. Be Authentic

We all work in marketing. We know a gimmick when we see one. Which is why authenticity is the greatest skill you can offer your clients, your employees, and your community.

9. Rely On Your Team

Shifting our focus from a small start-up to an established agency meant hiring the right people and growing a strong team of experts to rely on. With more voices at the table, our quality of work constantly expands with fresh ideas and new skills in a collaborative environment.

10. Have Fun

5 Horizons is a business, but at the end of the day we are a team of human beings. If we’re not enjoying what we do and who we are working with, then it won’t be sustainable. We are a hard working team, but we also encourage adding a healthy dose of fun to every work day.

We are thrilled to hit the one decade mark as a digital marketing agency. And we’re thrilled to enter the next decade of business with our dedicated clients and talented team of employees.

– Pat Riley & Ben Sandman

Inside 5 Horizons: 3 Tips for Efficient Project Management

July 10, 2023

Hear from Amelia Morrill, our Director of Project Management & Operations, as she shares her top suggestions for managing, implementing, and completing successful projects.

Managing people and workflow involves a balance of skills. Sticking to a schedule, keeping projects under budget, and communicating across teams are just a few of the responsibilities project managers have to navigate on a daily basis. Luckily, these three tips from Amelia can help people in project management roles stay on track:

1. Get a Buy-In from Everyone Ahead of Time

Before distributing tasks across the team, project managers should work with all involved parties to set up agreed-upon steps and deliverables. Doing so helps anticipate potential questions and roadblocks, outline each stage of the project timeline, and write out concrete expectations for final outcomes.

2. Establish Milestones

For large or multi-step projects, project managers should establish deliverable and approval milestones that need to be met before proceeding to the next phase. Such breakdowns of larger tasks create checkpoints that allow every member of the team to take actionable steps and achieve attainable goals.

3. Use Project Management Tools

Task management tools and software are project managers’ best friends. Using software such as Asana, Basecamp, Monday.com, Trello, and Jira can significantly streamline the process. Taking advantage of the project management tool’s features can help people stay organized, communicate with internal teams and clients, and delegate tasks.

Amelia utilizes these main tips to stay on schedule, support her team, and deliver the highest quality of work to our clients. Optimizing project management with these tips helps successfully complete any task, big or small.

How can our success with project management help you reach your goals? Connect with us to learn more.

The Inside 5 Horizons series includes stories and perspectives from our amazing team. Get a glimpse into our company culture each month by hearing from the unique voices of our copywriters, strategists, project managers, and more.

Inside 5 Horizons: Internal Linking Best Practices

June 1, 2023

Our Tech Team’s guide for identifying and implementing effective internal links in your website.

A well-built and maintained website makes it easy for users to find what they’re looking for. Internal links are critical for guiding navigation, building authority, and increasing keyword visibility.

Identify focus keywords for important pages.
Use those focus keywords as anchor text to link to those pages from other pages or content pieces.
Add links selectively and strategically.
Document content strategy, including anchor text and internal links, to avoid cannibalizing rankings from other pages.
Review page performance and then adapt and optimize according to fluctuating page rankings.

This guide explores important considerations for identifying and implementing effective internal links.

Why Internal Links Matter

Your site’s domain authority is directly impacted by how long visitors stay on your site, how many pages they visit, and how deep into the site architecture they go.

Every time you add a new page or post to your website, consider the interconnection between all of the pages on your site. Be sure to identify opportunities for linking to internal site pages. These links help site visitors access valuable content on your site rather than looking elsewhere.

Create and Maintain a Clear Content Strategy

A well-documented and maintained content strategy helps you define what you’re going to write about when, specific keywords to include, and opportunities for internal linking. Documenting the keywords that pages are targeting can help you avoid cannibalizing rankings.

Be intentional when deciding what links to add to any given page, and make sure that the included links are relevant to other page content and utilize keywords as anchor text.

Think About User Experience

While you don’t want them simply clicking in circles for the sake of clicking, you do want to provide them with easy ways to find what they’re looking for, as well as valuable information that may enhance their experience.

When your site visitors click on a link, they’re trusting you to reward them with valuable content. Therefore, the anchor text used should align with what they’re going to find on the other side.

Avoid page-stuffing with unnecessary or unrelated links. Not only will that negatively affect user experience, but the search engines are sophisticated enough to know that’s what is being done.

Be Selective About When to Link

There’s no need to make every instance of a keyword linkable. In most cases, this means only hyperlinking the keyword or phrase (e.g., program name) the first time it appears in the piece.

But consider the context when deciding which instance to actually link. For example, in a piece exploring the differences between MBA programs where each program has its own section, we’d suggest linking each program name as it appears in its section heading. This would extend to MBA as well, rather than hyperlinking the first occurrence in any intro copy.

Add Value to Your Links

Hyperlink text that only says “click here” or “learn more” are meaningless to search engines and forfeit opportunities to build domain authority. Instead, try to use keywords as the hyperlink text.

Rather than using “click here,” lead in to your hyperlink with text that adds value such as “download our brochure about [Program Name]” or “sign up for our [Program Name Infosession]” or “complete our inquiry form to learn more about [Program Name].” And rather than hyperlinking that whole sentence, put the hyperlink on the text that aligns closest to your focus keywords.

It’s worth noting that this is not talking about call to action (CTA) buttons, especially when it comes to “learn more.” CTA buttons are usually concise and adjacent to contextual copy.

Connect Users with Supporting Pages and Content

Internal links provide opportunities to guide users to information that may not be highly visible in the navigation. When you’re writing a content piece, think about other pages, content, and topics that might be relevant to the reader. Start by optimizing the content and meta data to try to attract more organic traffic.

Then you can add links to other relevant pages directing traffic to the less visible page using focus keywords. Also consider adding content pieces that highlight the keywords associated with the page you’re trying to highlight.

Using HTML5 for Animated Banner Ads

May 22, 2023

GIF vs HTML5—which one do our web developers use to create banners and why?

Animated banner ads can be created in GIF or HTML5 formats. What’s the difference between the two?

A GIF file consists of a series of frames that play in a sequence, creating a looping animation. HTML5 banners, on the other hand, are programmed with multiple lines of code and images. 5 Horizons’ Front End Development team thinks HTML5 ad banners are superior to GIF ones for these three reasons:

1. Interactivity

Developers use different scripts such as CSS and JavaScript to create HTML5 banners. This gives them creative freedom to build engaging online HTML5 banner designs. GIFs, however, are looping animated images, which means they lack interactive elements and smooth transitions.

2. Size

GIF banner ads are bulky, which can pose major complications when uploading to the clients’ platform of choice. Whereas HTML5 ads are small bits of code that load quickly and stay under the required platform file size. For this reason, HTML5 is the preferred file size for most vendors.

3. Color

It’s no surprise that the 8-bit GIF file is slowly becoming obsolete in the digital ad space since it offers a low range of only 265 colors. Comparing that to HTML5 banners, which can display about 16.7 million colors while still loading faster than GIF files.

HTML5 banner ads are vibrant, dynamic, and their technology is improving day by day, while GIF ads are slowly falling by the wayside. Digital marketing experts at 5 Horizons stay up-to-date on industry standards, trends, and innovations. Contact us if you want to place high-quality banner ads or have any other advertising needs.

Instagram Reels: Best Practices Guide

May 12, 2023

Use this simple guide to better understand and implement vertical video content in your social media efforts.

Reels, which were first introduced to Instagram back in 2020 to compete with TikTok, are now among the most popular vertical video content. Many companies with a preexisting Instagram presence should tap into Reels to grow their brand and promote their business.

Our Social Team has put together this best practices guide to help our clients make the best out of this short-form 90-second video format.

1. Follow the Trends

Using a trending sound is one of the most effective ways to capture more audiences. Keep an eye out for trends by scrolling through the Reels tab on Instagram and seeing what other creators (or even competitors) post. If you see something gaining traction, make sure to commit to it quickly, because trends come and go really fast!

2. Add On-Screen Text & Captions to Your Videos

Since 69% of video is watched without sound, it’s crucial to always add on-screen text and subtitles to your Reels. That way, you’ll reach more users and make your videos more accessible to people with hearing impairments.

3. Stick to Your Voice & Niche

Though trends are exciting, not all of them align with every business’ mission and goals. You are likely to see results from consistently posting reels that speak to your brand and help your audiences get to know you and your team better.

4. Avoid Horizontal Video

One of the most important evergreen tips is to keep vertical videos, such as Reels, vertical. If your institution has a high-quality horizontal video, it might be better suited for other platforms, such as YouTube, or as a post on any of the Meta platforms. Create Reels with the ideal aspect ratio of 9:16 and size them 1080 x 1920 pixels. That will make the Instagram algorithm more likely to favor your content and show it to users.

5. Use Tools & Hashtags

Take advantage of Instagram’s built-in features that help streamline the process of Reel creation. You can trim and delete video clips within the app and use Templates of other Reels to make your content match the trending sound perfectly. Before uploading your Reel, make sure to include 3-5 hashtags to help the algorithm better understand your content and offer it to the right audiences.

Keep in mind that most of these guidelines can be applied to not only Instagram but other platforms and types of vertical content as well. That includes Facebook Reels, TikToks, and Stories on both of the Meta social media platforms.

Do you want to further increase your brand’s visibility? Contact us to learn more about how we can help you achieve your social media goals.