Invisible text

Silktide may tell you about problems with text that you cannot normally see. This text will usually be shown in the HTML code for the page. If you don’t know HTML, it may not always be clear where this text is, or what it affects.

The most common types of invisible text are Titles, Alternative text and Tooltips.

Titles

You can recognize a title, as it is always written between the tags <title> and </title>, for example:

A title is visible to users, most notably in Google search results:

and as the name of a tab in your browser:

Titles can usually be changed in your Content Management System, but if you can’t edit them manually you should speak to the developers of your website. Some titles are generated by code and are not easy to modify.

Alternative text

Images, video and other media can specify alternative text to describe them to search engines and users with disabilities. Alternative text generally looks like this:

<img src="image.png" alt="This is alternative text">

Most Content Management Systems will allow you to change alternative text, but if the image is part of a template you may need help from the developers of the website.

Tooltips

Some websites may specify text in a title attribute, like this:

<img src="image.png" title="This is a tooltip">

So-called title text is usually visible to users as a tooltip. Search engines like Google can also read this text. Contrary to popular understanding, title text is usually not seen by users with disabilities, and does not contribute towards accessibility.

Depending on your Content Management System, you may be able to edit this text yourself, or you may need help from the developers of the website.