Bulk alt text and filenames

The Image SEO tool is a spreadsheet-style editor for every image in your store. Edit alt text and filename inline, or generate both from the product title with one click.

What you can edit

For each image, Easy Image Organizer exposes:

• Alt text. Free text. No length limit in the UI (Shopify enforces server-side).
• Filename. Alphanumeric, dashes, underscores, dots. Max 80 characters before extension. Extension auto-preserved.

That's it - position, dimensions, and image bytes are not edited here. For position, use the Organizer. For dimensions, use the Files API outside the app.

The four image views

The Image SEO tool defaults to All but you can filter by view:

• All. Every image in your store (via the Files API).
• Product images. Images attached to products.
• Collection images. Featured collection images.
• Not used. Files in your storage that aren't attached to any product or collection.

Use cases:

• Product images for the day-to-day SEO sweep.
• Collection images when refreshing brand pages or category pages.
• Not used for storage cleanup (delete orphans).

Per-row editing

For each image row:

• Click Filename to edit inline. The field accepts alphanumeric + dashes/underscores/dots. Special characters strip automatically. The extension is preserved.
• Click Alt text to edit inline.
• Click the wand icon at the end of the row to auto-optimise just that row.

The auto-optimise wand generates:

• Filename: <product-title-slug>-<position>.<ext> (e.g. blue-cotton-shirt-1.jpg).
• Alt text: <Product Title> - Image <N> (e.g. "Blue Cotton Shirt - Image 1").

After editing, the row gets an "Unsaved" badge.

"Auto optimize all"

The big button at the top runs the wand on every image in the current view. Use cases:

• After importing a Etsy/CSV migration where alt text is empty.
• After a supplier dump where filenames are IMG_xxxx.jpg.
• During an SEO audit when you want a baseline of auto-generated values to refine from.

The button respects the filter. So "Auto optimise all" with filter "Alt text status = missing" only touches images currently missing alt text. This is the safe way to fill gaps without overwriting your hand-written copy.

Bulk select + bulk action

For selective bulk optimisation:

1. Check the boxes on the rows you want.
2. Click Auto optimize selected in the bulk action bar.
3. Every selected row stages an auto-generated alt text + filename.
4. Save.

This is the standard workflow when you've already audited some images by hand and only want to fix the unaudited ones.

Saving

Same sticky save bar as the Organizer:

• Number of modified images.
• Save all changes primary action.
• Discard all changes secondary action.

Saves write back to Shopify in small batches. Progress shows across the top. A toast confirms completion.

What happens to filenames in URLs

Shopify's CDN serves images at URLs that include the filename. So renaming an image:

• Old URL stops working (the image is served at the new URL).
• Any link from outside Shopify to the old URL breaks.
• The image on your storefront updates to the new URL automatically.

In practice, this only matters if you have external backlinks pointing directly at product image URLs, which is rare. SEO-wise the impact is positive - search engines re-crawl and pick up the new URL.

If you want to preserve external links, rename gradually rather than in one big sweep, and let Google's re-crawl cycle catch up.

Alt text best practices

Good alt text:

• Describes the image in 5-15 words.
• Mentions the product type, key feature, and (when relevant) colour or material.
• Avoids "image of" or "photo of" - it's redundant.
• Uses sentence case, not Title Case Like Headings.

Examples:

• ✓ "Blue cotton t-shirt with chest pocket, front view on white background"
• ✓ "Wren and Oak Atlas leather backpack, brown, side angle"
• ✗ "IMG_2391"
• ✗ "Image of t-shirt"
• ✗ "tshirt blue cotton mens unisex apparel clothing wear shopify product image"

The auto-optimiser produces baseline-level alt text. For hero images and best-sellers, hand-write the alt text once you have the baseline in place.

Filename best practices

Good filenames:

• All lowercase, dashes between words.
• Describe what's in the image, not the SKU.
• 20-60 characters typically.

Examples:

• ✓ blue-cotton-tshirt-front.jpg
• ✓ wren-oak-atlas-backpack-brown-side.jpg
• ✗ IMG_2391.jpg
• ✗ final-final2-USEME-edit.jpg

The auto-optimiser uses the product title slug + image position. Good enough as a baseline; hand-edit for the products that deserve it.

What's next

• Find duplicate images - dedup before SEO, so you're not optimising alt text on images that shouldn't exist.
• Filters and search - the "alt text missing" filter that pairs with bulk optimise.