Reviewed November 7, 2026

Alt Text for Product Images: What to Write and What to Skip

A product photo with no alt text is a blank space to a screen reader user, and a product photo with alt text that says image of a red dress is barely better. Alt text is not a caption and it is not a keyword dump. It is the answer to one question: what does this image communicate that the words around it do not?

For a storefront, that question has a specific answer. The image shows the product, its color, its key features, and sometimes its context, and the alt text has to carry the parts that matter to a buying decision.

The rule for product photos

Write what a sighted customer learns from the photo that the text does not already say. Red linen midi dress with short sleeves and a smocked waist is useful alt text, because it carries color, fabric, length, and fit details a buyer needs. Image of a red dress is not, because it repeats the word image and omits everything that matters. Keep it under about 125 characters, which is roughly where screen readers start to lose patience.

The product name is usually already in the heading next to the image, so do not repeat it in the alt text. A screen reader user hears the heading, then the alt text, and hearing the product name twice is noise. The alt text should add the visual facts: color, material, pattern, and any detail that changes the purchase.

Lifestyle photos get different treatment. A photo of a model wearing the dress on a beach is selling a feeling, and the alt text should say so briefly: model wearing the red linen dress on a beach. A customer using a screen reader deserves the mood the photo is selling, not a literal inventory of sand and sky.

When the right alt text is nothing

Decorative images get an empty alt attribute, alt with nothing inside it, which tells the screen reader to skip the image entirely. Dividers, background textures, and icons that sit next to text saying the same thing are decoration, and giving them alt text adds noise to every page. The empty alt is a deliberate decision, not an omission, and it is the most common correct answer on a storefront after product photos.

Icons that act as buttons are the opposite case. A magnifying glass that opens search, a cart icon that opens the cart, and a hamburger menu all need an accessible name, either alt text or an aria-label, that says what the control does. Search, cart, and menu are the names, not magnifying glass icon and three horizontal lines.

The Shopify alt text field is in the product image editor, one field per image, and it is easy to fill in bulk badly. A store that writes the same alt text for every color variant has written alt text that lies, because the photo shows a blue dress and the text says red. Variant photos need variant alt text, or the customer who cannot see the photo buys the wrong color.

The audit that finds the gaps

Turn on a screen reader, load a product page, and listen to the images. Every photo that announces as image with no description is a missing alt. Every decorative image that gets announced is a missing empty alt. Then check the variant photos, which are where bulk alt text goes wrong. The fix is an afternoon of writing, and it is the cheapest accessibility improvement a store can make, because it needs no code and no theme change.

Frequently asked questions

How long should alt text be?

About 125 characters is a good ceiling. Screen readers handle longer text, but buyers stop listening. Say the color, material, and key features, then stop.

Should alt text start with image of?

No. Screen readers already announce the element as an image, so the words are redundant. Start with what the image shows.

When should alt text be empty?

For decorative images that add no information, like dividers and background textures. An empty alt attribute tells the screen reader to skip the image.

Do variant photos need different alt text?

Yes. A blue variant photo with alt text saying red dress is wrong, and a screen reader user will buy the wrong color. Write alt text per variant photo.