Shopify image alt text: the complete guide

Last updated: July 2026

Missing alt text is the single most common accessibility failure we find on Shopify stores — in our scan of 16 leading UK stores, 10 of 16 had product images with no alternative text, some with hundreds. It's also one of the easiest failures to fix, and one of the few where accessibility and SEO point the same way.

Why it matters

• Screen-reader users can't see your products. Without alt text, a product image is announced as "image" or worse, the file name. The shopper literally cannot tell what you're selling.
• It's a WCAG level-A failure (success criterion 1.1.1) — the most basic tier, which the European Accessibility Act and EN 301 549 require. Enforcement bodies look at exactly this.
• Google reads alt text. It's a ranking signal for image search and helps product pages rank for descriptive queries.

How to write good alt text

• Describe the product as a shopper would need it: "Women's navy merino crew-neck jumper, front view" — not "IMG_4372" and not a keyword pile.
• Keep it under ~125 characters. Screen readers truncate long descriptions.
• Don't start with "image of" or "photo of" — the screen reader already announces it's an image.
• Decorative images get empty alt (alt="") — background swirls and spacers should be skipped, not described.
• Every product variant image counts — colour swatches especially: "Same jumper in forest green."

Where to fix it in Shopify

• Product images: Admin → Products → select product → click an image → "Edit alt text". This is the big one — do your best-sellers first.
• Collection images: Admin → Collections → the collection's image has its own alt field.
• Theme/section images: most themes expose an "Image alt text" setting per section in the theme editor. If yours doesn't, the fix is in the section's Liquid: {{ image | image_url }} renders need an explicit alt attribute, e.g. alt="{{ section.settings.image_alt | escape }}".
• Logo: your logo's alt should be your store name — most themes handle this, some don't.

At catalog scale

A 500-product store can have thousands of images; hand-writing alt text for all of them is real work. Triage: best-selling products first, then collection pages, then the long tail. The AccessProof app lists every product image missing alt text across your whole catalog and (on the Plus plan) generates suggested alt text you can review and apply in bulk — so the long tail stops being the reason it never gets done.

Check where you stand

Alt text is one of ~55 WCAG checks a storefront needs to pass. Run a free scan to see your store's full picture, read the practical EAA guide, or generate a free accessibility statement once you've started fixing.