How to write image alt text for Shopify SEO

A practical guide for store owners

Image alt text is one of the easiest catalog details to overlook — and on a large store, thousands of product images end up with no alt text at all. This guide covers what alt text actually does, how to write it well, and how to fix it across a big catalog.

What alt text is

Alt text (alternative text) is a short written description attached to an image. It isn't shown on the page in normal use — it's read aloud by screen readers, shown if the image fails to load, and used by search engines to understand what the image depicts. In Shopify, every image on a product has its own alt text field.

Why it matters — honestly

Two real reasons, and one common myth:

Accessibility. Shoppers using screen readers rely on alt text to know what each product image shows. It's also increasingly expected for accessibility compliance.
Image search. Good alt text is how your product photos get found in Google Images and similar — a modest but real traffic source, especially for visual products.
The myth: alt text is not a meaningful factor for ranking your product page in regular text search. Don't stuff keywords into it expecting a ranking boost — that helps nothing and hurts accessibility.

How to write good product alt text

Describe the image accurately and specifically. What's actually in the photo — the product, its colour, the angle or context.
Name the product naturally. Include what the product is, written as a normal phrase, not a keyword list.
Keep it concise. One sentence, roughly under 125 characters.
Don't start with "image of" or "photo of." Screen readers already announce it as an image.
Give each image its own alt text. A product with five photos shouldn't reuse one description five times.

Weak: "image1" — or empty

Keyword-stuffed: "coffee beans buy coffee best coffee Ethiopia coffee online"

Good: "Single-origin Ethiopia Yirgacheffe coffee beans in an open kraft bag"

Finding missing alt text across your catalog

On a small store you can click through products and check. On a catalog of hundreds or thousands of images that isn't practical — and missing alt text is invisible until you go looking for it. You need something that scans the whole catalog and tells you which images have no alt text, rather than spot-checking and hoping.

Fixing it at scale

Catalog Cleanup AI scans your catalog, flags the images missing alt text, and generates accurate, specific alt text with AI — alongside your product descriptions and SEO meta. Every suggestion goes into a side-by-side diff, so you approve each one before it's written to your store, and any run can be undone for 90 days.

You can try it on your own products without installing anything:

Try it free — no install Install on Shopify

Common questions

Does image alt text help my Shopify store rank higher?

Alt text is not a significant factor for ranking your product page in regular text search. Its real value is that it lets your product images get found in image search, and it is required for screen-reader accessibility.

How long should product image alt text be?

Keep it to a single concise sentence — roughly under 125 characters. Describe the image accurately and specifically; don't keyword-stuff and don't start with "image of."

Where do I add alt text to a Shopify product image?

In the Shopify admin, open a product, click an image, and use the "Add alt text" (or "Edit alt text") option. Each image on the product has its own alt text field.