Reviewed November 3, 2026

Product Image Alt Text: A Decision Tree That Is Not Describe Everything

Write alt text by asking what the image is doing on the page, not what is in it. If the image is the product, name the product, its variant, and any attribute the photo is the only source for, such as the colorway or the back view construction. If the image sits inside a link, the alt text must name the destination, because that text becomes the link's name. If the image is pure decoration, a lifestyle texture behind a heading the reader already has, give it an empty alt attribute so assistive technology skips it entirely. WCAG 1.1.1 requires a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose, and purpose is the operative word in every clause of that sentence.

Stores usually arrive at alt text with one of two injuries. A past audit flagged missing alternatives, and the remediation wrote a keyword stuffed description for every image on the site, including the marble background. Or a theme shipped with empty alt attributes everywhere, and the one photo showing the bag's interior compartments says nothing to the shopper who cannot see it.

Both errors come from treating alt text as a property of the image file. It is a property of the image's job in this page, in this position. The same photograph can need three different treatments in the gallery, in a linked collection tile, and in an editorial block, and all three can be correct.

The three questions that sort every image

First: if this image vanished, what information or function would the page lose? If the answer is none, decorative, empty alt, move on. Second: is the image inside a link or button? Then its text is a link name and must say where the link goes, not describe the photograph. Third: does the image carry product information available nowhere else on the page, a color, a construction detail, a scale cue, a before and after? That information goes into the alternative, concisely.

Color deserves its own line. On many product pages the selected colorway exists only in the image and the image filename, while the accessible name of the variant option says something like option 3. A blind shopper is entitled to know they are buying the bag in oxblood. Where variant controls are properly labeled, the gallery alt can stay short; where they are not, the alt text is carrying a debt the controls owe.

Length, keywords, and other temptations

Keep alternatives as short as the information allows. Screen reader users hear your alt text in the flow of the page; a ninety word description of a shoe from three angles is a tax on the person least able to skim. If the detail matters, it belongs in the visible product description too, where everyone benefits and the alt can point to it by staying brief.

Keyword stuffing alt text is a double loss: it degrades the experience of the users the attribute exists for, and search engines have discounted stuffed alternatives for years. Write the alternative you would say aloud to a customer holding the product with their eyes closed. That sentence, with the marketing adjectives removed, is nearly always the right length and the right content.

Making it survive your catalog process

Alt text decays at the point of upload. Build the decision into the product information workflow: the person who assigns variant names writes the gallery alternatives in the same sitting, from the same data, so colorway language cannot drift between the two. For back catalogs, prioritize by traffic and by information risk, images that are the sole source of variant or size information first, decorative backfill last or never.

Re-audit after any theme change. Themes restructure galleries, turn images into links, and silently alter what the alternative must do. The file did not change; its job did, and conformance follows the job. A one hour review of the top templates after a redesign catches the regressions while they are still cheap.

Frequently asked questions

Should alt text ever start with image of or picture of?

Almost never. Assistive technology already announces that the element is an image, so the phrase wastes the first words the listener hears. The exception is when the medium itself is the information, as in a photograph versus a rendering of an unbuilt product.

What alt text should a zoom or 360 view carry?

The same product and view information as the still it extends: the view angle and any detail the zoom exists to reveal, such as stitching or lining. If the enlarged view adds no new information beyond magnification, a short alternative naming the view is enough.

Our images are inside links to product pages. What changes?

Everything. The alt text becomes the link's accessible name, so it should read as the destination: the product name and variant, not a description of lighting and backdrop. A link named image or click here fails link purpose criteria as well as wasting the alternative.

Is empty alt the same as a missing alt attribute?

No, and the difference matters. An empty alt attribute, alt equals quote quote, is a deliberate statement that the image is decorative, and assistive technology skips it. A missing attribute makes most screen readers read the filename aloud, which is the worst outcome of the three.