How to write alt text for Shopify product images

What alt text is for

Alt text (the alt attribute on an image) is a short text alternative for a picture. Screen readers read it aloud to people who cannot see the image. Browsers display it when the image fails to load. Search engines use it, along with the surrounding page, to understand what the image shows, which helps the image appear in image search and gives context to the product page.

On a product page, the photos carry most of the information a shopper uses to decide. Without alt text, a screen reader user hears only “image” or a file name, and misses the color, the detail shot and the view from the back. Good alt text gives them the same information sighted shoppers get from looking.

What good product alt text says

Describe what the image shows, in the order that matters for a shopper:

1. The product, with its type and name as a shopper would say it.
2. The variant: color, pattern or material visible in this photo.
3. The view or detail: front, back, close-up of the zip, shown on a model, shown in use.
4. Anything relevant to buying: scale (“next to a smartphone for size”), fit (“model wears size M”), if visible.

Examples for an invented product:

• Weak: product image
• Weak: backpack backpack best backpack laptop backpack cheap
• Better: Grey canvas backpack, front view
• Good: Grey canvas laptop backpack, open main compartment showing padded 15-inch sleeve

The good example describes what is actually in the photo and naturally includes the words a shopper might search for. It is not a list of keywords.

Practical rules

• Keep it short. One sentence, often under 125 characters. Long descriptions belong in the product description.
• Do not start with “Image of” or “Picture of”. Screen readers already announce it as an image.
• Make each image’s alt text different. Five photos with identical alt text give no extra information.
• Include the color for variant images. This helps shoppers and, in some themes, helps group images by variant (variant images guide).
• Avoid keyword stuffing. Repeating search terms makes alt text useless for screen reader users and does not help rankings.
• Describe text in the image. If a photo includes words that matter, such as a size chart or a label, include that information.
• Decorative images can have empty alt text. Background textures or dividers in your theme should use alt="" so screen readers skip them. Product photos are never decorative.

How to add alt text in Shopify

For a single product

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Products and open the product.
2. In the Media section, click the image you want to edit.
3. Find the alt text field in the image preview, enter your description and save.
4. Repeat for each image, then check the product page with your browser’s inspector or a screen reader to confirm it appears.

Shopify’s Help Center describes the current steps in its article on adding keywords and alt text for SEO; the interface wording changes occasionally, so refer to it if the labels look different.

For many products

Product CSV exports include an “Image Alt Text” column. Export, fill in the alt text in a spreadsheet, and import with the option to overwrite existing products. Test with a small file first: a mistake in a CSV import affects every row at once. Apps can also generate or edit alt text in bulk; review their output, because automatic captions often miss the variant or describe the background instead of the product.

For collection images, banners and blog posts

Collection images, theme sections and blog images have their own alt text fields in the theme editor or the content editor. Banners with promotional text in the image need that text in the alt attribute, otherwise screen reader users miss the offer completely.

Alt text and image file names

File names are a separate, smaller signal. Rename files before uploading: grey-canvas-backpack-open.jpg is more meaningful than DSC_0042.jpg. Once uploaded, Shopify keeps the file name, so it is easier to get right at the start than to fix later.

Common mistakes

• Using the product title as alt text on every image.
• Leaving alt text empty on product photos.
• Describing the photo style (“beautiful lifestyle shot”) instead of the product.
• Writing alt text in a different language from the page.
• Forgetting alt text on variant images added later.

Checklist

• Every product image has unique, descriptive alt text.
• Alt text names the product type, variant and view.
• Under roughly 125 characters, with no “image of” prefix.
• No repeated keywords.
• Text visible in images is included in alt text.
• File names are descriptive before upload.
• Collection images, banners and blog images also covered.

Alt text is one item in the broader product page SEO checklist, and it works best alongside a well-structured product description.

Why it is worth the time

Alt text is rarely the single change that moves a product to the first page. Its value is cumulative: every product photo becomes understandable to every shopper, image search gets accurate context, and accessibility reviews find fewer problems. For a store with a few hundred products, writing alt text properly is a few hours of work that keeps paying back.

Frequently asked questions