Does alt text help SEO?

Yes. Search engines use alt text to understand an image, which helps products appear in image search. It should describe the image accurately rather than be stuffed with keywords.

Where is alt text on Shopify?

Each product image has an alt text field in the product editor. You can also edit it in bulk with an image app rather than one product at a time.

Glossary

Image alt text

Definition

Image alt text is a short written description of an image, stored in the image's alt attribute. Screen readers read it aloud for shoppers who cannot see the image, and search engines use it to understand and rank the image, which is how products show up in Google Images. On Shopify, every product image has an alt text field.

Why alt text matters

Alt text does two jobs. For accessibility, it is how a shopper using a screen reader knows what an image shows, which also keeps your store in line with accessibility expectations. For SEO, it is one of the main signals search engines use to index an image and match it to a search.

Missing alt text means both audiences lose the information: the screen reader has nothing to read, and the search engine has less to go on when ranking the image.

What good alt text looks like

Good alt text describes the image plainly: the product, and what is shown, in a natural sentence. "Navy merino wool crew-neck jumper, front view" is useful. Stuffing it with keywords like "jumper sweater knitwear buy cheap wool" is not, and can read as spam.

Editing alt text across a large catalogue one product at a time is slow, which is why stores bulk edit alt text instead.

Image alt text

Why alt text matters

What good alt text looks like

Common questions

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