How do I add alternative text to Shopify product images?

Definition: Alternative text, or alt text, is a written description of an image that assistive technology can use to describe it to someone with a visual impairment. As of October 2026, Shopify documents an alt-text field accessible by opening an image in the product editor.

Key facts

• Shopify's SEO documentation places the product image control under Products, followed by the product and image, with Save alt text completing the edit.
• Shopify's product media guidance allows a maximum of 512 characters and recommends 125 characters or fewer.
• Google's image SEO documentation says it uses alt text together with computer vision and page content to understand an image's subject matter.

Where is the field in the product editor?

Shopify's product media instructions give this desktop sequence:

1. In the Shopify admin, open Products.
2. Select the product containing the image.
3. Click the image to open Preview media.
4. Click Add alt text.
5. Enter the description and click Save alt text.
6. Click X to leave the preview.

The SEO guide calls the image control Edit alt text. Both documented routes finish with Save alt text. The same guide gives a separate route for collection and blog featured images: Update, then Edit image.

What should the description contain?

Shopify's keyword guidance recommends readable phrases describing what appears in the image and using relevant keywords from the page where it appears. The description should communicate the image's content.

Google's image guidance adds that alt text should provide useful information in the context of the page. It warns against filling the attribute with keywords because this harms the user experience and may make the site appear to be spam. A concise description of the pictured product follows these recommendations.

How can the storefront output be checked?

The HTML <img> element embeds an image in a page; its alt attribute carries the alternative text. Shopify's image_tag reference documents a theme function that generates this element and uses media alt text or a resource title by default. It also permits an explicit override.

For verification, inspect the product image's <img> element in the storefront HTML and compare its alt value with the saved description. Shopify's example output contains this attribute:

alt="Health potion"

This is an excerpt from the documentation's example. An actual product image should carry the relevant description. If the storefront value differs from the saved field, the documented override is a setting to check in the theme's image output.

Related terms

• Image alternative text
• How do I edit a Shopify page's search listing?
• Googlebot-Image

FAQ

Can I add alt text in the Shopify app?

Yes. Shopify's mobile instructions say to open the product and media preview, tap Information, enter the description, and save the field, then save again.

Should I put a list of search keywords in the field?

Google's image SEO guidance recommends useful descriptions with appropriate keywords and warns against keyword stuffing. You can describe the product as shown while keeping the wording relevant to its page.

Sources

1. Shopify Help Center, "Adding keywords for SEO to your Shopify store", undated
2. Shopify Help Center, "Adding alt text to media", undated
3. Google Search Central, "Google image SEO best practices", 2 March 2026
4. Shopify Developers, "image_tag", undated

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