Describe the actual image
Alt text should tell someone what is visible in the image, especially when the image carries product information.
- Mention the product type, color, material, and visible details when useful.
- Avoid repeating the same keyword phrase across every image.
- Do not use alt text for promotional copy or unrelated search terms.
Prioritize products that matter
Stores with thousands of images should not start randomly. Focus on products that already get impressions, revenue, or ad traffic.
- Start with best sellers and products in active campaigns.
- Fix blank alt text before polishing already acceptable descriptions.
- Use image SEO cleanup as part of a broader product SEO score.
Use AI carefully
AI vision can generate useful alt text, but the workflow needs guardrails so output stays accurate and natural.
- Generate concise descriptions instead of keyword-stuffed strings.
- Use product data as context, but do not hallucinate details that are not visible.
- Log updates so merchants can review what changed.
Make it recurring
Alt text problems return whenever new products or images are uploaded. A weekly scan keeps the catalog from sliding backward.
- Detect new missing image alt text every week.
- Queue safe AI-generated descriptions for review or automatic update.
- Report how many image issues were fixed over time.