Alt text – what is it, why is it important and where can I edit it in Shopify?

Alt text (alternative text, alt tag or alt attribute) is basically a description of what’s on an image. It plays an essential role when it comes to your site’s SEO. Therefore you should make sure that all of your store’s images have a filled alt tag.

Why are the alt tags so important?

• If a web page loads slowly, the alt tag will be displayed in a place of the image. This means that your visitors can get an idea of what’s on the picture.
• Screen readers - If you use a screen reader, images don’t show up so the alt tag is the only way how to inform the user what’s on the image (mainly used by visually-impaired people).
• Search by images - people tend to search by images. E.g. if you want to buy a winter coat, you don’t usually scroll the main SERP on Google but rather check the images straight away. And how do search engines know what pictures to show ? They use the alt tags to get information what’s on the image (+ search engine’s recognition technology).

Any tips for writing an alt text?

Sure, keep reading to find them out!

• Describe the image as specifically as possible. Don’t only use the product titles. Describe well how the product looks like.
  • Tip for describing the product: Sometimes, it helps imagine that you’re in a shop and you’re calling to your friend and want to describe her/him the product you’re holding in your hands, which you want to buy.
• Don’t use words such as “an image of” or “a picture of”, and else. It’s not needed.
• Keep the alt tags fewer than 125 characters. Screen readers usually stop reading alt text at this point.
• Use keywords. Be aware of keyword stuffing!
• Write alt tags for all of your images (product images, main image, images on your pages, and else).

Where can I edit the alt text in Shopify?

Product image

1. Head over to your Shopify store.
2. Choose any product you would like to add the alt tags for.
3. Go to the Media section and choose an image.
4. On the right side, click the blue text “Add alt text”.
5. Write (or edit) the alt text and click “Save alt text”.
6. Repeat for all of the product images.

Other images

1. In your Shopify store, go to the section Online store.
2. Click the button “Customize” on the right side.
3. Select a page, on which the image is displayed.
4. Choose the right section of the page.
5. Find the image and click “edit alt text” under the image.
6. Repeat for all of the images on the page.

I hope I’ve managed to explain to you what alt text means, why it’s essential for your site’s SEO and in which section you can add (edit) the alt text in Shopify. Need any more help? Contact me at my email. I’ll be happy to help you.

Learn about more tips how to improve your site’s SEO! Here’s a post about titles and meta descriptions.