General
Why alternative texts for images are important – and how to use them correctly
On your career site, you can include images in many places – for example, as a key visual, in a gallery, or within the contact component. Whether these images are purely decorative or provide meaningful content is entirely up to you: you decide which images to upload and what purpose they serve.
Especially for informative images – such as a team photo, an organizational chart, or a company certificate – you should add alternative text. This text helps people with visual impairments understand the content of your page and also improves your page’s visibility in search engines.
To help you make your page more accessible, we’ve made it possible to add alternative texts to the most important components. In this guide, we’ll show you where you can manage these alternative texts.
Best Practices
What you should pay attention to when writing alternative texts
An alternative text should briefly and precisely describe what can be seen on the image - and why it is relevant to the content of the page. The aim is to provide users with screen readers with the same information as all other visitors to the page.
Observe the following basic rules:
Describe the essentials: What does the image show? What information should be conveyed?
Avoid redundancies: If the image information is already included in the body text, it does not need to be repeated.
No formulations such as "Image of..." or "Graphic shows...": Screen readers already announce that it is an image.
Keep the text as short as possible: one or two sentences are usually enough.
What about purely decorative images?
If an image has no meaning in terms of content and is only used for design or creating the mood, the field for the alternative text should be deliberately left blank. Otherwise, unnecessary content is read out, which can even worsen accessibility.
Typical examples of decorative images on your career website:
An atmospheric office photo in the background of a section
An icon image with no specific reference to the content
A generic image used only to break up between blocks of text
Components with alternative texts
The following components containing images can be supplemented with alternative texts:
Mosaic
Key Visual
Key Visual with Gallery
Key Visual with Jobs
Key Visual with Search
Key Visual with Filters
Text and Media
Accordions and Media
Media Mix
Target Groups
Multipurpose Teasers
Large Teasers
Gallery
Image Box
Quote
Quotes Gallery
Recruitment Process
Contacts
Certificates
Social links
Mosaic
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Select one of the rows.
Select one of the tiles.
If you select "Image":
Enter the alternative text for the image.
If you select "Quote":
Enter the alternative text for the portrait image, if it is activated.
Key Visual
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Image/Video" tab.
Under "Visual content type", select the option "Image or gallery".
Click on the desired image tile.
Enter the alternative text.
Key Visual with Gallery
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Select the desired slide.
Go to the "Background type" section.
Select "Image".
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Key Visual with Jobs
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Teasers" tab.
If the "Show latest jobs" option is deactivated:
Select a teaser.
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Switch to the "Background" tab
Select "Image".
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Key Visual with Search
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Switch to the "Background" tab
Select "Image".
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Key Visual with Filters
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Switch to the "Background" tab
Select "Image".
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Text and Media
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Media" tab.
Select the "Image" option under "Media type".
Click on the desired image tile.
Enter the alternative text.
Accordions and Media
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Media" tab.
Select the "Image" option under "Media type".
Click on the desired image tile.
Enter the alternative text.
Media Mix
Open the editor window.
On the right-hand side, you will find a total of nine tabs in which you can store predefined content.
You have the option of inserting an image in each of these tabs:
If you use an image, enter the alternative text for it.
A portrait image can also be activated and inserted in the "Quote" tab (3rd tab from the top):
Please enter an alternative text for this as well.
In addition, several images can be added in the "Gallery" tab (6th tab from the top):
In this case, please enter an alternative text for each individual image (each slide).
Target Groups
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Select the desired slide.
Enter the alternative name for the image.
Multipurpose Teasers
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Teaser" tab.
Click on the desired teaser.
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Large Teasers
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Teaser" tab.
Click on the desired teaser.
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Gallery
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Click on the desired image tile.
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Image Box
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Click on the desired image tile.
Enter the alternative text for the image.
Quote
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Click on the desired quote.
Enter the alternative text for the portrait image if it is activated.
Quotes Gallery
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Quote" tab.
Click on the desired quote.
Enter the alternative text for the portrait image if it is activated.
Recruitment Process
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Make sure that the "Use icons instead of images" option is deactivated.
Click on the desired step. Enter the alternative text for the image.
Contacts
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Layout" tab.
Make sure that the "Show portraits" option is activated.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Click on the desired contact person.
Enter the alternative text.
Certificates
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editor window.
Switch to the "Content" tab.
Click on the desired certificate image.
Enter the alternative text for the portrait image if it is activated.
Social Links
The input field for the alternative text can be found as follows:
Open the editing window.
Switch to the "Social links" tab.
Click on the desired link.
Enter the alternative text for the social network logo.