URL: /rules/content/placeholder-media

---
title: "Placeholder images and camera-default alt text"
description: "A placeholder service image, a 1x1 stand-in or an alt of DSC_0001 means the media was never finished. squirrel names the image and why it was flagged."
---

## What placeholder media is

Placeholder media is an image that was never replaced with real content. Placeholder media is a stronger "unfinished site" signal than placeholder text, because a visitor sees a grey box or a stock stand-in where the product photo should be, and nothing else in an audit looks for it.

## What squirrel checks

The rule runs on every crawled page over the `<img>` elements outside `<noscript>`. It emits a single check named `placeholder-media`:

- Skipped when there is no parsed document, or when the page has no images.
- Pass when nothing matched. Message: `No placeholder images or camera-default alt text found`.
- Fail when an image source is a placeholder. Warn when only an alt is a camera-default name.

Three things are detected:

- **Placeholder source.** `via.placeholder.com`, `placehold.it`, `placehold.co`, `dummyimage.com`, `lorempixel.com`, the random endpoints of `source.unsplash.com`, or the word `placeholder` in the image path or filename.
- **Blank 1x1 inline image used as content.** A base64 GIF or PNG that is one pixel square, with no real `data-src`, `srcset` or `<picture>` `<source srcset>` behind it. The responsive candidates are the same ones the placeholder check reads, so a 1x1 `src` in a `<picture>` whose `<source>` names a real image is a stub and is not reported. A tracking pixel, a spacer sized to one pixel, an image marked `aria-hidden`, `role="presentation"` or `alt=""` with a one-pixel size, and a lazy-load stub that carries a real `data-src` all stay clean.
- **Camera-default alt text.** `DSC_0001`, `IMG_1234`, `DSCN0042` and similar, optionally with a file extension.

A lazy-loaded image is judged on its real source (`data-src`, `data-lazy-src`, `data-original`), not on the stub in `src`. A stub named `placeholder.gif` in front of a real `data-src` is the normal lazy-load pattern and is not reported.

When an image has responsive sources, they take precedence over `src` in the placeholder check. A real lazy-load source (`data-src`, `data-lazy-src`, `data-original`, `data-srcset`, `data-lazy-srcset`) still takes precedence over both.

- Only the first URL of each `srcset` is checked: the first URL in the `<img>` element's own `srcset`, and the first URL in each `<source srcset>` when the `<img>` sits in a `<picture>`.
- When the image has at least one of those URLs, `src` is not checked for a placeholder. A placeholder in `srcset` is reported even when `src` is a real image, and a placeholder `src` beside a real `srcset` is not reported.
- When the image has more than one of those URLs, it is reported only when every one of them is a placeholder, and the finding names the first. A `<picture>` with one placeholder `<source>` and one real `<source>` is not reported.

### Overlap with the alt text rule

Plain junk alt text (`image`, `photo`, `picture`, `img`) and an alt that repeats the filename are reported by [a11y/image-redundant-alt](/rules/a11y/image-redundant-alt). This rule leaves them alone so a page is not penalized twice for one cause. The only alt text it adds is the camera-default names, and only when the alt is not already the filename.

Severity for the rule is warning, weight 5. The rule is skipped on soft 404 pages.

## How to fix it

Replace the image source with the real asset, and add the image field to whatever check gates publishing. If a 1x1 image is only a lazy-load stub, put the real URL in `data-src`. For camera-default alt text, write a short description of what the image shows, or use `alt=""` when it is purely decorative.

| | |
|---|---|
| **Rule ID** | `content/placeholder-media` |
| **Category** | [Content](/rules/content) |
| **Scope** | Per-page |
| **Severity** | warning |
| **Weight** | 5/10 |

## Enable / disable

### Disable this rule

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules]
disable = ["content/placeholder-media"]
```

### Disable all Content rules

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules]
disable = ["content/*"]
```

### Enable only this rule

```toml squirrel.toml
[rules]
enable = ["content/placeholder-media"]
```

`enable` replaces the default `["*"]`, so this is the only rule selected. Leave `disable` out: a rule that matches any `disable` pattern is skipped even when `enable` names it. Only an `enabled` setting under a rule's own `[rule_options]` table overrides both lists.

## Related rules

- [content/placeholder-text](/rules/content/placeholder-text): the same unfinished-page signal in visible copy.
- [a11y/image-redundant-alt](/rules/a11y/image-redundant-alt): junk alt words and alt text that repeats the filename.
- [images/filename-quality](/rules/images/filename-quality): generic image filenames.

Content findings ship in every audit next to the SEO, performance and agent experience rules. See [Fix SEO issues with AI](https://squirrelscan.com/learn/fix-seo-issues-with-ai) for how an agent works through a report.

## Check your site

Run `squirrel audit https://example.com` and open the Content section of the report. Each page is listed with the placeholder images found. Signed-out local audits need no account and cost nothing. Signed-in audits spend credits.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Install squirrel" icon="terminal" href="/quickstart">
    One command to install, one to run your first audit.
  </Card>
  <Card title="See a sample report" icon="file-text" href="https://squirrelscan.com/reports/squirrelscan-sample">
    What the Content section looks like on a real site.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>