Most sellers treat alt text like that weird broccoli side dish you push around your plate to make it look like you ate some. They slap in “image1” just to shut the system up and keep moving. That harmless little box isn’t harmless at all. It’s quietly draining traffic, sales, and trust. Alt text is the line that tells search engines what the picture actually shows, and it’s what screen readers lean on when a shopper can’t see your image. Skip it and you’re basically locking the door on buyers while tying a cinder block to your SEO.
Why Alt Text Matters
Alt text isn’t some extra credit assignment. It’s how you turn a dumb square of pixels into words that both people and search engines can use. Shoppers who need screen readers depend on it to know what they’re looking at. Google depends on it to figure out where your page belongs. If your catalog is full of “IMG_2042” junk, Google learns nothing and buyers get nothing. One simple, clear sentence per image transforms those silent boxes into information that can be found, indexed, and trusted.
How to Spot Trouble
Start with the pages you actually care about. The ones that sell the most and get the most eyeballs. Open a page and imagine every single photo flat-out refuses to load. Would a shopper still know what they’re buying, or would they just stare at sad empty squares? Now pop open Chrome DevTools and run an accessibility scan. You’ll see missing alt text, pointless boilerplate, and descriptions that are either “War and Peace” long or laughably vague. If your page leans on visuals to explain a feature and those images don’t have alt text, you’ve just poked a hole in your sales funnel. Patching that hole isn’t hard, but you’ve got to actually do it.
Getting the Basics Right
Think of alt text like describing the photo to a friend over the phone who can’t see it. Keep it short, specific, and honest. “Handmade cedar birdhouse with sloped roof and rope hanger” works. “Beautiful birdhouse you’ll love” is nonsense. Don’t start with “picture of” because screen readers already know it’s an image. Give the buyer the details they’d need to make a decision. Material, color, shape, size, finish, and one key feature. That’s the sweet spot. You’re not writing poetry. You’re writing a one-sentence stand-in for when the photo ghosts out.
Keep it natural. If a keyword actually matches the image, use it once. “Organic cotton T-shirt in navy blue with short sleeves” makes sense if that’s what’s there. If the keyword doesn’t fit, leave it. Cramming words in makes screen readers sound like they’re drunk and makes Google suspicious. Aim for about 125 characters so screen readers don’t chop it off mid-sentence. You’re aiming for clarity, not a Pulitzer.
Where Alt Text Doesn’t Belong
Not every little doodad on your site needs alt text. Background swirls, spacer graphics, decorative icons, they’re like elevator music. Nobody needs them read out loud. Use a null attribute so screen readers skip them. Save the words for images that actually help someone buy. That means product shots, alternate angles, size diagrams, texture close-ups, assembly steps, and “how it works” visuals. If it would matter to a buyer on a slow connection or a shopper who can’t see, it deserves a sentence.
Make It Part of the Workflow
Alt text shouldn’t be a quarterly punishment you dread like cleaning the garage. Fold it into your normal routine. When you add the product title, price, and SKU, drop in the alt text too. If you’ve got a giant backlog, don’t panic. Start with your top twenty products that bring in the most money and chip away. Ten images a day clears a catalog faster than you think. Write yourself a cheat sheet with examples so the tone stays consistent instead of turning into a Frankenstein mix of styles.
Five Things You Can Do Right Now
First: Audit your top pages for missing alt text.
Run a free scan, then click through your best sellers like a shopper. If the photos didn’t load, would you still know what belongs there and why it matters?
Second: Rewrite the fluff
Gorgeous mug” is useless. “Red ceramic coffee mug with curved handle” actually tells someone something. Buyers care about material, color, shape, and one feature that matters, not your opinion of how pretty it is.
Third: Keep it short and human
One clear sentence under 125 characters. If it sounds like a robot when you read it out loud, fix it.
Fourth: Let decoration stay silent
Background swirls, filler images, ornamental junk, don’t make screen readers recite that stuff. Keep alt text for the images that help close a sale.
Fifth: Bake it into your upload routine
Title, price, SKU, alt text. Same time, same form. Do it once and it’s done. Don’t leave yourself a mountain of catch-up work.
Bring It Home
Alt text is one of the fastest wins you’ll ever grab. It makes your store usable for more people, it helps Google know what you’re selling, and it gives shoppers a safety net when images don’t load. Spend one afternoon fixing your best sellers, then make alt text part of the way you publish from now on. When every key image on your site actually says something useful, your catalog becomes easier to find, easier to trust, and way easier to buy from.
FREE – get my 
