Alt Text: The Unsung Hero of E-commerce SEO
Webinar Recap: How Product Image Alt Text Impacts Search Rankings
In e-commerce, your images sell your products — but without alt text, search engines and screen readers are left in the dark. Think of alt text like the voiceover for your product gallery. It tells Google what your image is and helps visually impaired users understand what's on your site. Without it, it's like having a store full of amazing items… with the lights off.
Why Alt Text Matters: The Double Win
Carolyn Shelby, Principal SEO at Yoast, breaks it down: alt text is essential for two key reasons — SEO and accessibility. Search engines can't "see" your images, and neither can screen readers. Alt text is what gives those visuals meaning.
Analogy: Imagine you're on a phone call with a friend who's showing you photos — but you can't see them. If they just say 'this one's great,' it means nothing. But if they say, 'this is a close-up of a leather tote bag with gold buckles,' now you get it. That's what alt text does.
Alt text also helps ensure your site is compliant with accessibility standards like WCAG — a must for inclusive design and increasingly, legal protection.
Manual Alt Text Is a Bottleneck (And a Burnout Risk)
Joshua Reeder Esparza, Head of Engineering at AltText.ai explains what developers and eComm teams experience. Alt text is often the last step in the content process, and it can be difficult.
You're launching a new product line with 200 images. Someone says, 'Don't forget the alt text.' That's hours of mind-numbing work no one wants to do.
This leads to:
- Missed images (e.g., some product shots never get described)
- Inconsistent quality (some say "red shoe," others say "women's size 7 red suede running sneaker")
- SEO opportunities lost (especially when no keywords are used)
Automating Alt Text with AltText.ai: A Developer's Dream
AltText.ai steps in like an auto-pilot for your alt text. It uses AI to analyze the image and generate descriptions that are both SEO-optimized and screen reader-friendly — saving teams hours of manual effort.
Example
Upload a product image of a "blue ceramic mug with a speckled finish." AltText.ai might generate:
"Blue ceramic mug with curved handle and speckled glaze finish on a white background"
Instead of "mug" or worse — no alt at all.
It integrates directly with Shopify, WordPress, and other CMS tools — so no developer bottlenecks. Just install, sync, and optimize.
Best Practices Made Practical
Carolyn offered easy-to-remember advice for writing alt text — or evaluating AI-generated ones:
Alt Text Best Practices
- Be specific
- What's the item, color, texture, context? Example: "Black leather ankle boots with block heels"
- Be concise
- Aim for one line — not a paragraph. Don't say: "A black leather ankle boot sitting on a wooden floor under natural light."
- Don't keyword stuff
-
Use relevant terms naturally. Yes: "ceramic ramen bowl"
No: "ramen ramen noodle ceramic bowl soup ramen Asian food" - Context matters
- If it's a lifestyle shot, say so. Example: "Woman sipping coffee from white mug at kitchen table"
Accessibility = Revenue
One of the most compelling moments in the webinar was this line:
Every time you exclude a user who relies on assistive tech, you're leaving money on the table.
Accessible websites reach more customers. They also build trust, reduce legal risk, and improve SEO — a rare win-win-win.
Success Story
A fashion brand that added alt text across their product images saw a 9% lift in organic traffic in 3 months — just from improved image indexing and better accessibility scores.
Conclusion: Visibility, Inclusivity, and Efficiency in One Step
Alt text isn't just a checkbox. It's a signal of quality — to Google and to your customers. With automation tools like AltText.ai, SEO managers, web developers, and eComm brands can finally scale content without sacrificing quality or compliance.
In Carolyn's words:
When you do alt text right, you're building a smarter website — one that speaks to everyone, everywhere.
Want to automate alt text for your e-commerce site?
AltText.ai generates SEO-optimized, accessible alt text for all your product images, saving you hours of manual work while improving accessibility and search rankings.