Most ecommerce stores treat alt text as an accessibility checkbox: add something short, move on. The result is thousands of product images tagged with filenames like "IMG_4823.jpg" or generic descriptions like "product image." In 2026, that is a meaningful gap, not a minor oversight. Alt text is now one of the inputs AI shopping assistants use to understand what your products look like, and Google's visual search relies on it heavily for product indexing.

What Alt Text Actually Does

Alt text serves three distinct functions on a product page.

Accessibility. Screen readers read alt text aloud to visually impaired users. For ecommerce, this means a shopper using assistive technology should be able to understand what a product looks like and what the image shows without being able to see it. This is both a legal requirement in most markets and the right thing to do.

Traditional image SEO. Google uses alt text as a primary signal for image search indexing. Images with descriptive, accurate alt text appear in Google Images and can drive discovery traffic. For product images, this is a real source of commercial traffic that many stores ignore.

AI product understanding. AI shopping assistants crawl product pages and extract signals from all text on the page, including alt attributes on images. When an AI is trying to understand whether a product is a match for a buyer's query, the alt text on the primary product image contributes to that assessment. An image of a navy blue jacket tagged with "jacket-product-1.jpg" tells the AI nothing. An image tagged with "Men's slim-fit navy wool jacket, front view, single-breasted, notched lapel" gives it specific, usable data.

The Scale of the Problem

A typical Shopify store with 200 products might have 600 to 1,200 product images. Most platforms auto-generate alt text from the image filename or the product title. Filenames are rarely descriptive. Product titles are better but still generic: a product titled "Ceramic Coffee Mug" will have images tagged "ceramic coffee mug," which tells a search engine nothing about the colour, the size, the shape, the finish, or the context shown in that particular photo.

The opportunity is proportional to the neglect. Stores that systematically improve their alt text across their product catalogue create a meaningful SEO advantage over competitors who have not done the same work. It is one of the least competitive on-page optimisations available, specifically because it requires effort that most sellers skip.

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How to Write Alt Text for Product Images

Good product image alt text follows a predictable structure: product type + key attributes visible in the image + view angle or context where relevant.

For the primary product image, include:

For additional product images, vary the description to reflect what each photo shows. A close-up of stitching should describe the stitching. A lifestyle photo showing the product in use should describe the context. This variation means each image provides unique signal rather than repeating the same generic tag across twelve photos of the same item.

Common Alt Text Mistakes in Ecommerce

Empty alt text on product images. An empty alt attribute (alt="") is correct for decorative images that carry no informational content. It is not appropriate for product images, which are the primary visual content of the page. Leaving product image alt text empty completely removes the image from AI and search indexing.

Keyword stuffing. "leather wallet buy leather wallet best leather wallet mens" is not a description and will be ignored or penalised by search systems. Alt text should read as a natural description that happens to include relevant terms, not a keyword list formatted as a sentence.

Identical alt text across all images of the same product. If all eight photos of your product have the same alt text, search engines treat them as duplicates and may index only one. Each image should describe what it specifically shows.

Including "image of" or "photo of" at the start. Screen readers already announce that they are reading an image. Starting with "image of" wastes the first two words. Start with the subject.

Visual Search and AI: The Growing Case for Better Alt Text

Google Lens processed billions of visual shopping queries in 2025. Pinterest Lens, Bing Visual Search, and similar tools are now used regularly by buyers who want to find a product they've seen in the real world or in an image. These systems work by analysing the visual content of an image and then cross-referencing it with indexed product data. The alt text is part of that indexed data.

AI models that power shopping assistants are increasingly multimodal: they can process both text and images. As these systems mature, the relationship between image content and alt text will become a stronger signal for product matching. Stores that have accurate, descriptive alt text across their product images will be better positioned as this capability expands.

The work required to fix alt text is primarily operational: building a process for how your team writes and adds alt text to new product images, then clearing the backlog on existing pages starting with your highest-traffic products. It does not require technical changes to your platform and the return on that operational investment compounds over the life of each image.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should product image alt text be?

Between 50 and 125 characters is the commonly cited range for screen readers to handle comfortably. In practice, focus on being complete and accurate rather than hitting a specific length. A 140-character description that fully describes a complex product image is better than a 50-character description that leaves out key attributes. Avoid unnecessary padding to reach a target length.

Should I include my brand name in alt text?

For product images, include the brand name once on the primary image if it is a branded product (e.g. "Nike Air Max 90, white and black, side view"). Do not repeat the brand name across every image of the same product. For lifestyle or banner images that feature your brand prominently, including the brand name is appropriate.

Does Shopify automatically generate alt text for product images?

Shopify does not auto-generate alt text. When you upload an image in the product editor, the alt field defaults to empty or to the filename depending on how the image was uploaded. You need to add alt text manually through the product image edit screen. Some third-party Shopify apps automate bulk alt text generation using AI, which can be a reasonable starting point for large catalogues as long as you review and correct the output.

Do alt text improvements affect paid shopping ads?

Not directly. Google Shopping and Meta catalogue ads draw from your product feed, not your on-page alt text. However, better-indexed product images improve organic image search traffic, which is a separate channel. For paid performance, focus on product feed title and description quality rather than alt text.

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