A lazy-loaded image with its real URL sitting in a data-src attribute can look broken to a check that only reads src, even though it works fine for a visitor. Scan any URL to find which images genuinely have missing alt text, empty attributes, or a dead source, not just a false alarm from how the page loads images.
Search engines can't actually see an image. They rely entirely on the text around it, alt text especially, to know what's there. No descriptive alt text means a high-quality photo is just blank space to Googlebot, regardless of how good it looks to an actual visitor. The same text matters just as much to anyone navigating the page with a screen reader.
One thing that complicates checking this: a lazy-loaded image often sits behind a placeholder. The library swaps a tiny blank or low-res placeholder src for the real image URL, stored separately in a data-src attribute, only once it scrolls into view. A check that only reads src can flag a perfectly fine image as broken or missing simply because it hasn't loaded yet.
A full breakdown of your page's image health, not just a pass/fail count.
Alt text problems are among the easiest SEO issues to fix at scale once you know the pattern. Here's how to work through them systematically.
Write a short description, under 125 characters, of what the image actually shows, with the page's primary keyword worked in only if it genuinely fits. In WordPress, that's the Alt Text field in the Media Library. In raw HTML, add alt="your description here" directly. For a catalog of hundreds of product images, a bulk-edit plugin or CSV export beats doing it one image at a time.
Before treating a "broken" image as broken, check the actual HTML for a data-src, data-original, or similar attribute alongside src. If the real URL is there and resolves fine on its own, the image works correctly for visitors, it's the placeholder swap pattern that confused the check, not the image itself.
A real 404 means the file moved, got renamed, or was deleted without updating the reference. Restore it to its original path, update the src to wherever it actually lives now, or remove the element entirely if it's no longer needed. Add explicit width and height attributes too if they're missing, since a previously broken image that starts loading can otherwise shift the layout.
An empty alt is correct only for genuinely decorative elements, spacers, background textures, ornamental dividers. For a product photo, screenshot, or diagram, it's an error. If the image communicates something to a sighted user, it needs real alt text; if it's truly decorative, leave the empty alt and move on.
Past 125 characters, trim to the single most important detail rather than a full caption. Separately, a filename like IMG_0042.jpg paired with good alt text is a missed signal; renaming to something like blue-running-shoes-side-view.jpg helps, as long as every src reference gets updated or the old URL redirects.
Checking every image by hand is realistic for a single page, not for a site with thousands of product photos or blog assets. One developer update or one bulk content upload can leave hundreds of images blind to search engines without anyone noticing for weeks.
A way to manage image SEO across a whole domain rather than one page scan at a time.
alt="") means it's present but intentionally blank, which is correct for purely decorative images but still an error for content images.