Alt tags are text descriptions added to images in your store's HTML that tell search engines what an image shows. Since search engines can't see images, alt tags help your product images get indexed and appear in Google Image Search, which can drive additional organic traffic to your store.

Under the Alt Tags page in Smart SEO, you may set the alt tags for your Products, Collections, Articles, and other images (Files) used in your store:

When you go to Alt Tags -> Products, you will see a list of all your products and their images. Next to each image, you will see it's current alt tag and an Edit icon, that will allow you to edit it:

Above all products, you will see a search field that allows you to search by product name. Or right below the search bar, filters that will allow you to filter all the products in the list by Tag, Vendor, Collection, Category, or Product type:

If you want to change a single image alt tag, click the Edit icon next to the image in question. Then add the desired text for the alt tag and click the Save button, which will appear at the top of the screen:

The change is immediate and is saved in the Shopify database, which means that even if you are to remove our app in the future, the alt tags saved through Smart SEO will not be deleted.

Just like with our Meta Tags feature, you may use the Bulk Edit feature for setting the Alt Tags for all your images at once with our token templates. To do this, click the checkbox above the list of products to select all the products on the page (and click the Select all 10+ items button that will appear to select all products in your store), then click Edit products:
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You will see the selected product names at the top, a text area field below, for adding the alt tag for the selected product images, and on the right, the list of Smart Tokens you can use for creating a template that would be used for the selected images' alt tags. Let's say we want the alt tag for each image to be the name of its product. To achieve this, we add the ${title} token and click SAVE on the top right:

Once you click SAVE, a task for changing the alt tags for the selected images will start, and you can see the progress there:

Once the task is done, click on the Go to product list button, and you will see that the alt tags for the selected products have been changed:

With Smart SEO, you can generate the alt tags for your images with AI.

You can do that by selecting the images you want to generate alt tags for, using AI. Or, if you want to generate for all products, click the Checkbox for selecting all the products on the page, then Select all 10+ products in your store (just like you would do for bulk editing the alt tags):

Then click AI Generation at the bottom of the page. This will open up the bulk AI generation window:

Here, you can provide keywords that you would like the AI to use, select the tone of voice, and, optionally, you can add special instructions. Once you are done, click the Generate button, and the AI task will start.

You can uncheck the "Overwrite existing alt tags" if you want the AI to write Alt tags, only for images that do not have Alt tags.

Under the Tasks section, you can check your Bulk Alt tags and Bulk AI Alt tags tasks. You can inspect the details, and you can also revert each task up to 32 days after its completion.
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Question: Where on my website can I check my alt tags?

Answer: Alt tags don't appear visually on your website - they live in the page's HTML code. To check them, right-click any image in your browser and select "Inspect," then look for the alt="" attribute inside the <img> tag.

Question: Should my alt tags be keyword-rich?
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Answer: Yes, but naturally. Write a clear description of the image first, and relevant keywords will follow. Stuffing keywords into alt tags ("buy cheap shoes mens 2024") looks spammy and can hurt rather than help.

Question: How long should an alt tag be?
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Answer: Keep it under 125 characters. Screen readers cut off longer descriptions, and search engines don't give extra credit for length. One clear, descriptive sentence is enough.

Question: Can I use the same alt tag for multiple images?
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​Answer: Avoid it. Duplicate alt tags give search engines no new information and dilute your image SEO. Each image should have a unique description that reflects what that specific image shows.

Question: How to translate my alt tags?

Answer: Alt tags are not translatable resources in Shopify, and thus, cannot be translated natively. However, you may use a translation app like our TLab translation app to translate them

Question: What are the available smart tokens for the alt tags bulk edit feature?

Answer: The smart tokens for the alt tags bulk edit are different for the different entities. Here is a list of available tokens for Products, Collections, Articles and Files

Products alt tags smart tokens

${title}

${description}

${meta-title}

${meta-description}

${sku}

${barcode}

${category}

${price}

${min-price}

${max-price}

${tags}

${product-type}

${vendor}

${compare-at-price}

${min-compare-at-price}

${max-compare-at-price}

${option1}

${option2}

${option3}

${shop-name}

Collections alt tags smart tokens

${title}

${description}

${shop-name}

Articles alt tags smart tokens

${title}

${content}

${summary}

${tags}

${author}

${shop-name}

Files alt tags smart tokens

${file-name}

${shop-name}