Fix Images Missing Alt Text on Shopify

Use SEOScan's free scan to get a list of every product and collection image missing alt text. Alternatively, export your product images via a CSV export and inspect the "Image Alt Text" column - blank cells indicate missing alt text.

Go to Admin → Products → click any product → click an image thumbnail → click the "Alt text" field in the panel that appears → type your description → click Done. Repeat for every image on every product.

A good alt text format for products is: "[Product name] in [colour] - [key feature or angle]". Example: "Handmade leather wallet in cognac brown - front view showing card slots". Include the product keyword naturally but do not repeat it multiple times.

Go to Admin → Products → Collections → edit a collection. Click the collection image and add alt text. Collection image alt text should describe the category: "Women's summer dresses displayed on a rack".

Background and promotional images set in the theme customiser also need alt text. In Online Store → Themes → Customise, click on any image block and look for the "Image alt text" or "Description" field in the sidebar.

Right-click a product page → View Page Source → search for "alt=". Confirm the alt attributes contain descriptive text, not empty strings (alt="") or filenames (alt="product-1234.jpg").

Search your theme code for alt="" (empty alt attributes). In the theme code editor, look in product templates for image tags. If you see {{ image.alt }} used correctly, you only need to fill in the data - not change the code.

{%- comment -%} Correct Liquid pattern for product images {%- endcomment -%}
{% for image in product.images %}
  <img
    src="{{ image | image_url: width: 800 }}"
    alt="{{ image.alt | escape }}"
    width="{{ image.width }}"
    height="{{ image.height }}"
    loading="lazy"
  >
{% endfor %}

After updating, run the product URL through Google's Rich Results Test. While it does not specifically check alt text, it will parse your images and confirm they are accessible to Googlebot.

Q: Does Shopify automatically add alt text to product images?

No. Shopify leaves the alt text field blank by default when you upload product images. Some themes use {{ image.alt }} in their Liquid templates, which will output an empty string if you have not set the alt text. You must manually add alt text to every product image in the Shopify Admin, or use a bulk-edit app or CSV import.

Q: What is the ideal format for product image alt text?

The ideal format includes the product name, a key descriptor (colour, material, or style), and optionally the view angle. Example: "Black leather crossbody bag with gold hardware - side profile view". Keep it under 125 characters. Do not start with "image of" or "photo of" - screen readers already announce that context.

Q: Can missing alt text affect my Shopify store's Google Image Search rankings?

Yes. Alt text is the primary signal Google uses to understand image content since it cannot reliably interpret pixels alone. Products with descriptive alt text are far more likely to appear in Google Image Search results for relevant queries. Google Image Search drives significant traffic for product categories like clothing, jewellery, home decor, and crafts.