How to add alt text in Webflow, Squarespace and Wix

Site builders all let you add alt text, but each one puts the field in a different place, and each has defaults that can quietly leave images without a useful description. Below are the steps from each platform’s own help centre (checked October 2026; interfaces change, so follow the linked docs if a menu has moved), plus the gotchas worth knowing.

For what to write, see how to write good alt text. The short version: describe the image’s purpose in context, describe the destination for linked images, and mark purely decorative images as decorative.

Webflow

Webflow lets you set alt text once on the asset (inherited wherever it’s used) and override it per instance (Webflow Help: Alt text for images).

Set alt text on the asset (default everywhere)

1. Open the Assets panel (keyboard shortcut J).
2. Hover over the image and open its settings (the cog icon, or ⋯ › Edit settings in newer versions (Webflow Help: Assets panel)).
3. Choose Descriptive and write the description, or choose Decorative.
4. Save.

“Whenever you use the image on your site, it inherits the alt text you set in the Assets panel.”

Override alt text on one instance

1. Select the image element on the canvas.
2. Open Image settings (cog icon).
3. In the Alt text dropdown, choose Custom description and type it, or choose Decorative.

Webflow notes this “only affect[s] the one instance”. If you drag in a new copy of the image, it goes back to the Assets panel default.

Images inside Rich Text

Select the image inside the rich text element, click the wrench icon, and use the Alt text dropdown (Custom description or Decorative).

AI-generated alt text in Webflow

Webflow can “automatically generate contextually-relevant alt text” from the Assets panel via Generate with AI (Webflow Help). Review what it writes, especially for linked images, where the alt should describe the destination.

Webflow gotchas

• Asset-level alt is one size fits all. A photo used as a linked card thumbnail on one page and as content on another needs different alt text. Use instance overrides.
• Decorative means empty alt. Webflow’s own example of a decorative image is an arrow icon next to a link. Don’t mark product shots or images of text as decorative.
• Background images set in styles don’t take alt text. Use them only for decoration.

Squarespace

Squarespace handles alt text differently depending on the image type, and some images take their alt text from other fields automatically (Squarespace Help: Add alt text to images).

Image blocks

1. Open the Pages panel and click the page, then Edit.
2. Click the image block, then the pencil icon.
3. In the image block editor, open the Content tab.
4. Enter text in Image alt text. It saves automatically.

Image blocks accept up to 250 characters, and “if you don’t add alt text to image blocks, the image is hidden from assistive technologies, like screen readers” (Squarespace Help).

Auto layout sections

1. Hover over the section and click Edit Content.
2. Open the Content tab and click the image.
3. Scroll to Image Alt Text and enter it.
4. Click Back, then Save.

If the field doesn’t appear, Squarespace says to switch the Show image toggle on in the Elements tab.

Gallery blocks

Double-click the gallery block (or click Edit), hover over an image and open its settings, then add text in the image title field. Squarespace uses the title as alt text, and “if you don’t add an image title, text in the description field becomes alt text” (same source).

Images that use other fields as alt text

According to Squarespace’s help centre, many images have no dedicated alt field and use a related field instead. For example, blog post featured images use the post title, event featured images the event title, gallery section images the description, and product images the product name if you don’t add alt. Where nothing else applies, “an image’s file name acts as alt text” (except image blocks and auto layouts).

Squarespace gotchas

• File names become alt text. IMG_2041.jpg becomes the description. Rename files descriptively before uploading, or update file names in the Asset library.
• Post titles as alt can be fine for a featured image that illustrates the post, but they’re repeated next to the post title text. Review your blog index pages.
• Section background images can’t have alt text. Squarespace notes that decorative backgrounds generally don’t need it, and suggests an image block as a workaround if a background carries meaning.
• Video block custom thumbnails don’t support alt text.

Wix

Wix covers alt text in the editor, in galleries, and in its Accessibility Wizard, which includes AI generation (Wix Help: Accessibility – Preparing your images and galleries).

Single images

1. Go to your editor (Wix Editor, Studio or Harmony).
2. Click the image on the page.
3. Click the Settings icon.
4. Enter a description under What’s in the image?
5. Press Enter to save, then publish the site so the alt text goes live.

Gallery images

Click the gallery, then Manage Media (or Change Images), select an image and enter a title. By default, gallery image titles are used as alt text. In Wix Pro Gallery you can set a separate Alt Text (Wix Help: Optimizing images for SEO).

Vector art and background images

Vector art has its own field: What’s in the vector art? Wix also supports alt text on some background images, “including those on slideshows, strips, popups, columns, and more” (same source).

The Accessibility Wizard (and AI alt text)

Open the Accessibility Wizard (in the Wix Editor via Settings › Accessibility Wizard; in Studio via Site Checker › Fix Accessibility Issues), click Scan Site, open Detected issues, choose a page and use the Add alt text to images task (Wix Help: Studio Editor).

The wizard can generate AI alt text for one image or for every image on a page. Wix itself cautions: “We cannot guarantee that AI generated alt text is always completely accurate. We therefore recommend checking the generated text for every image.” The AI tool doesn’t support SVG or GIF images, and bulk generation skips images marked decorative or already described (same source).

Wix gotchas

• Galleries default to titles. If your titles are file names or “Untitled”, that’s what screen readers get.
• Publish after editing. Alt text changes aren’t live until you publish.
• Bulk editing outside the wizard isn’t available. Wix notes it’s “not currently possible to add alt text to images / galleries in bulk” in the editor (the wizard’s per-page AI generation is the closest option).

The common thread: check the published page

All three platforms have defaults that fill alt text from somewhere else: an asset setting, a title, a file name. The only reliable way to know what a screen reader gets is to check the published page. That’s also where an automated checker earns its keep:

• Missing alt (the image has no alt attribute).
• File-name alt (IMG_2041), common on Squarespace.
• Title-as-alt duplicating visible text, common in galleries and blogs.
• Decorative marked on informative images, a risk with one-click “decorative” toggles.

Check your site

Run the free Altpass checker on a published page from your Webflow, Squarespace or Wix site. It reads the live HTML, so you’ll see exactly what visitors and screen readers get, with a score and a list of images to fix. Then use the steps above to fix them at the source.

Updated 2026-10-07