Image Standards
Last updated: May 2, 2026
Recipe images should help readers understand the food, not simply decorate the page. RecipePool is rebuilding its public catalog around stronger image relevance, clearer visual checkpoints, better alt text, and stricter handling of duplicated or mismatched photos.
Relevant to the recipe
Public recipe images should represent the dish, ingredient family, or useful cooking cue instead of unrelated stock filler.
Useful as evidence
Images should support finished-dish appearance, texture, serving context, or a checkpoint that helps the reader cook.
Audited before indexing
Public pages are checked for broken assets, weak alt text, remote stock links, duplicated hero images, and missing visual proof.
What a Recipe Image Should Do
A recipe hero image should set accurate expectations for the finished dish. A reader should not click a roasted chicken recipe and see an unrelated stew, a generic pantry photo, or a duplicated image from a different recipe. When a perfect original photo is not available, we prefer to keep the public catalog smaller rather than publish large numbers of pages with misleading imagery.
Visual checkpoints should be practical. They may show a finished dish, a texture cue, a prep cue, or a final serving cue. If a checkpoint does not have its own image, the page may use a clearly styled fallback image, but the surrounding text must still explain what the reader should look for while cooking.
Alt Text and Accessibility
Meaningful recipe images need descriptive alt text that identifies the dish or cooking cue. Alt text should not be stuffed with keywords, and it should not claim details that are not visible. Decorative or hidden images should not add noise for screen readers. Accessibility issues can be reported through our Accessibility Statement.
Attribution and Source Labels
Public recipes track whether images are owned, licensed, public-domain, AI-generated, or local public assets. When attribution is required, the recipe page should display it clearly. Pages with missing attribution, weak source labels, or low-confidence imagery can be held back until the issue is fixed.
Duplicate and Mismatched Images
Duplicate imagery is a quality problem when it makes different recipes appear interchangeable. Our audits look for repeated public hero images, broken image files, suspiciously tiny assets, non-image files served as images, and rendered images that do not have useful alt text. If a duplicate or mismatched image is found, we either replace it, clarify its role, or remove the page from public routes until the visual support is strong enough.
Reader Reports
If you see an image that is broken, unrelated, duplicated, poorly described, or missing attribution, send the page URL and a short description through the Contact page. Image reports are handled through the same review process described in our Corrections Policy.