Writing Alt Text That Works — for Screen Readers and for SEO

Q: What is alt text, exactly?

Alt text (the alt attribute) is the textual description of an image in your HTML. A screen reader reads it out when a blind or partially sighted visitor reaches the image. If there's no alt text, that visitor hears only "image" — or worse, an unreadable file name like IMG48392final.jpg. With a product photo, a customer like that drops off immediately, often right at checkout.

Q: How do you write good alt text?

Three simple rules and you're set: 1. Describe the product, not the mood. Start with the factual description and leave out "photo of…" or "image of…" — the screen reader already announces the image. 2. Distinguish informative from decorative. A product photo, chart, or banner gets a short description. A decorative line or background shape gets an empty alt (alt=""), so the screen reader skips it — calmer for the user. 3. Don't stuff keywords. Write for the human; search engines in 2026 recognise keyword-stuffed alt text as spam and penalise it. Natural language wins, for both the visitor and the algorithm. From weak to strong, using a single leather handbag as an example: Bad: alt="nice bag" — subjective and vague. Mediocre: alt="image of a bag" — redundant "image of", no detail. Good: alt="Brown leather handbag with adjustable shoulder strap" — concrete and useful.

June 5, 2026

Short answer. Good alt text describes in a few words what an image shows and why it's there. That makes your product photos readable for people who use a screen reader — and it helps Google and AI understand your visuals. One short sentence, double the gain. Decorative images get an empty alt (alt=""); informative images get a short, concrete description.

What is alt text, exactly?

Alt text (the alt attribute) is the textual description of an image in your HTML. A screen reader reads it out when a blind or partially sighted visitor reaches the image. If there's no alt text, that visitor hears only "image" — or worse, an unreadable file name like IMG_48392_final.jpg. With a product photo, a customer like that drops off immediately, often right at checkout.

How do you write good alt text?

Three simple rules and you're set:

Describe the product, not the mood. Start with the factual description and leave out "photo of…" or "image of…" — the screen reader already announces the image.
Distinguish informative from decorative. A product photo, chart, or banner gets a short description. A decorative line or background shape gets an empty alt (alt=""), so the screen reader skips it — calmer for the user.
Don't stuff keywords. Write for the human; search engines in 2026 recognise keyword-stuffed alt text as spam and penalise it. Natural language wins, for both the visitor and the algorithm.

From weak to strong, using a single leather handbag as an example:

Bad: alt="nice bag" — subjective and vague.
Mediocre: alt="image of a bag" — redundant "image of", no detail.
Good: alt="Brown leather handbag with adjustable shoulder strap" — concrete and useful.

A real-world example: a bag of dog food

Alt text	What the customer and Google experience
No alt	Screen reader reads out the file name; Google misses the context.
`alt="product"`	Too vague — the customer still doesn't know what it is.
`alt="Bag of dry food for adult dogs, 12 kg, with chicken"`	The blind customer knows exactly what they're buying; Google indexes the page correctly.

Where do you set alt text in your webshop?

In most platforms you don't need to dive into the code; there's a built-in field:

Shopify: product → media → "edit alt text".
WooCommerce / WordPress: Media → click the image → "Alternative text" field.

Prioritisation tip: don't start with all your thousands of product pages. Tackle your homepage banners, your navigation icons, and your top 10 best-selling products first — that's where the impact on your conversion is greatest. This is, by the way, one of the 10 most common accessibility mistakes, so chances are you have something to gain here.

Do your products then show up in AI search results too?

Yes — and that's the bonus. Because Google and AI engines (such as ChatGPT and Perplexity) can't "see" images, they rely entirely on the surrounding text. When a consumer asks an AI engine "what's the best dry food with chicken for my dog?", it looks for sources that factually describe the product. Good alt text therefore increases your chances of appearing in image search results and in AI answers. It's the same principle as with accessibility = SEO: the same fix, double the gain.

See where alt text is missing

Want to know which images on your site still have no alt text? Scan one page for free. You'll see per finding which images are missing and how to fix it — in under 60 seconds, no account.