Optical Character Recognition.
Learn what Optical Character Recognition means in modern search and SEO.
Technology that converts images of text—printed or handwritten—into machine-readable, searchable text.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is the technology that converts images containing text—photographs, scanned documents, screenshots, PDF images—into machine-readable, editable, and searchable text. Modern OCR combines image processing with deep learning models trained to recognise characters across fonts, sizes, orientations, and image qualities.
SEO and Accessibility Applications
Search engines use OCR to index text within images, making image-based content searchable. For SEO, this means text embedded within images can be read by crawlers—though adding proper alt text and surrounding copy remains essential. OCR also powers tools that audit PDFs and images for accessibility issues, extract data from documents at scale, and enable content repurposing from legacy materials.
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