How to Write Product Image Alt Text (With 20 Examples)

Alt text has two jobs: describing an image to someone who cannot see it, and telling search engines what the image contains. Do the first job well and the second happens automatically.

Most ecommerce alt text fails because it is written for the second job only — which produces keyword-stuffed text that helps nobody and reads as spam.

The Rules

1. Describe what is visibly in the frame. Not the product listing, the image.
2. Under 125 characters. Screen readers commonly truncate past that.
3. No "image of" or "photo of." Screen readers already announce it as an image.
4. Include the product name when it identifies what is pictured.
5. Note the view or angle for multi-image product galleries.
6. Empty alt (alt="") for decorative images. Not a missing attribute — an empty one.
7. No keyword stuffing. It is a violation of accessibility guidelines and reads as spam to search engines.

Examples: Main Product Photos

Bad	Good
IMG_4821.jpg	Charcoal merino wool base layer, front view
product image	Ceramic pour-over coffee dripper in matte white
base layer merino thermal buy online cheap	Navy merino base layer with flatlock shoulder seams
best coffee dripper 2026 free shipping	White ceramic dripper sitting on a glass carafe

The good column tells you what you would see. The bad column tells you what someone hoped to rank for.

Examples: Multiple Angles

For a gallery, distinguish the views so each image adds information:

• Charcoal merino base layer, front view
• Charcoal merino base layer, back view showing centre seam
• Close-up of flatlock shoulder seam on charcoal base layer
• Charcoal base layer folded, showing 220gsm fabric weight
• Model in charcoal base layer under an open shell jacket

Repeating identical alt text across all five is a wasted opportunity and unhelpful to a screen reader user navigating the gallery.

Examples: Lifestyle and In-Use Shots

Describe the scene, because the context is the point of the image:

• Hiker wearing charcoal base layer on a snowy ridge at sunrise
• Pour-over dripper brewing into a glass carafe on a kitchen counter
• Folded merino base layers stacked in an open backpack

Examples: Detail and Texture Crops

These images exist to show one specific thing — say what:

• Close-up of merino knit texture showing fine rib pattern
• Detail of hand-glazed finish showing subtle colour variation
• Macro shot of flatlock stitching on shoulder seam

Examples: Charts, Diagrams, and Size Guides

These need the information conveyed, not just a label. This is where most stores fail hardest, because "size chart" tells a screen reader user nothing they can act on.

Weak: size chart

Better: Size chart: XS 34in chest through XXL 50in chest, in 2-inch increments

If the chart is genuinely complex, the right solution is a real HTML table on the page, with the image marked decorative. Complex data should not live only inside a JPEG regardless of alt text.

Examples: Decorative Images

Background textures, divider graphics, and purely aesthetic elements:

<img src="paper-texture.jpg" alt="">

Empty, present. Omitting alt entirely causes some screen readers to read out the file name.

The Test

Read your alt text aloud with your eyes closed. Can you picture the image?

If yes, it works — for screen reader users and for search engines equally, since both are trying to understand what is pictured.

If what you hear is a string of keywords, you have written it for a search engine that stopped rewarding that years ago.

Why This Never Gets Done

Nothing above is difficult. A single image takes under a minute.

The problem is the arithmetic: 300 products × 4 images = 1,200 images = roughly 20 hours of concentrated, repetitive work that has no visible effect on the page. It gets scheduled and then permanently deferred.

Wrivo AI generates alt text as part of the same pass that writes descriptions and SEO fields — so it happens inside the normal product workflow rather than as a standalone 20-hour project.