Alt text (alternative text) is a written description attached to an image that tells search engines and screen readers what the image shows. On Shopify, you can add alt text to every product image, collection image, and content image through your admin. When an image cannot load or a visually impaired user visits your store with a screen reader, the alt text is what they see or hear instead.
Alt text serves two purposes: making your store accessible to all customers and helping Google understand your images for SEO.
Why It Matters
Google cannot see images. It reads alt text to understand what an image contains and whether it is relevant to a search query. Product images with descriptive alt text can appear in Google Image search results, driving additional traffic to your product pages.
Beyond SEO, alt text is an accessibility requirement. Roughly 2.2 billion people worldwide have some form of vision impairment. Screen readers announce alt text aloud so these users can understand your product images. Stores without alt text are invisible to this audience.
Alt text is one of the easiest SEO wins on Shopify. It takes 10 seconds per image and most competitors skip it entirely.
How Alt Text Works
In HTML, alt text lives inside the image tag as an attribute:
When Google crawls your page, it reads this attribute to catalog the image. When a screen reader encounters the image, it reads the alt text aloud. When the image fails to load (slow connection, broken URL), the browser displays the alt text in place of the image.
On Shopify, you add alt text by clicking on any image in your product editor, collection editor, or file manager and filling in the “Alt text” field.
How to Write Good Alt Text
Describe what you see, specifically. “Bag” is too vague. “Black leather crossbody bag with gold chain strap on white background” tells Google exactly what the image shows and matches long-tail search queries.
Include relevant keywords naturally. If your product page targets “organic cotton t-shirt,” your alt text should naturally include those words: “Men’s organic cotton crew neck t-shirt in forest green.” Do not force keywords where they do not fit.
Keep it under 125 characters. Screen readers typically cut off alt text around 125 characters. Say what matters within that limit. No need to start with “Image of” or “Photo of” since the screen reader already announces it as an image.
Be specific to each image. If a product has 5 images, each one should have different alt text describing what that particular photo shows. A front view, side view, close-up, lifestyle shot, and packaging shot each deserve unique descriptions.
Alt Text Examples
| Image | Bad Alt Text | Good Alt Text |
|---|---|---|
| Product photo | “shoe” | “Women’s white canvas low-top sneaker with rubber sole” |
| Lifestyle shot | “product in use” | “Woman jogging on trail wearing blue running shoes” |
| Size chart | “chart” | “Size chart showing US sizes 5-12 with cm measurements” |
| Collection banner | “banner” | “Summer sale collection featuring beach accessories and swimwear” |
Common Alt Text Mistakes
Leaving alt text blank. This is the most common mistake on Shopify stores. Every product image should have alt text. Blank alt text means Google ignores the image entirely and screen readers skip past it.
Keyword stuffing. “Running shoes best running shoes buy running shoes cheap running shoes sale” is spam, not alt text. Google penalizes this, and screen readers make it unbearable for visually impaired users.
Using the filename. “IMG_4521.jpg” or “product-photo-1” tells nobody anything. Always write a human-readable description.
Identical alt text for all images. If every product image has the same alt text, you are wasting opportunities for Google Image visibility and making the browsing experience worse for screen reader users.
The fastest way to audit alt text on your store: open your Shopify admin, go to any product, and click each image. If the alt text field is empty, fill it in right now. Do five products a day until your entire catalog is covered.
Alt Text vs. Title Attribute vs. Caption
Alt text describes the image for SEO and accessibility. The title attribute shows a tooltip when users hover over the image (rarely used in ecommerce). The caption is visible text displayed below the image. For Shopify stores, alt text is the most important of the three. Focus your effort there.
