SEO - Image Alt text best practices

[RozeCollection]

Hi Guys .

I'm updating my Image Alt texts on my site . Its a fashion site , so for 1 product there are up to 5 different images.

Its going to be very difficult to have unique alt texts for each image , as there is a main image , and then say a

side view , back view etc....   all that differs is the camera perspective , still precisely the same garment.

I'd like to know if I add a unique Alt text to the main picture . and  leave the others blank . would that work well for SEO.

for example :   Model wearing our black pleather leggings     

and leave the others blank , or should I write in (null value)  ??   or should I also add ALT text to the other images

example :  side-view of model wearing black pleather leggings .

I'm concerned that there is going to be duplicate content , ie: the same words duplicated as Alt text.

that's not good for SEO. 

any advise is appreciated .  many thanks

[Don]

Hi there @RozeCollection!

Don here from Shopify. 🙂

I checked in with some theme specialists here who confirmed that it would be a good idea to add alt text to all your images for SEO and accessibility purposes.

If you have variant images which differ slightly, then you should add alt text to these also which will reflect the specific contents of that image.

You can add this text via the theme customiser or the product page in the admin.

In addition to being beneficial for SEO purposes, they are also good for accessibility as some customers may need to use screen readers or other sorts of accessibility devices.

There's a good external guide here on why alt text is important for SEO purposes, and that site, in general, is a good non-Shopify resource for all things SEO.

Are you still building out your site and thinking about how you will be marketing your store, or have you been selling for a while in a given niche or market?

Regards,

Don

[RozeCollection]

thanks Don .  so it would be perfectly fine to just duplicate the Alt text , and add the vantage point .

like side-view of blue Italian denim jeans , while the main picture is - blue Italian denim jeans ?

doesn't this create duplicate content -  blue Italian denim jeans ??

when I check the SEO , I'm picking up duplicate text .  its almost impossible to describe each

Alt text uniquely .    I'm also worried search engines pick it up as spam / SEO padding

advise.

[Don · Accepted solution]

Hi again @RozeCollection!

I just conferred again with a theme specialist here who advised that though duplicate alt text content would not give you any negative results for SEO purposes, nor would it give positive marks either.

Their advice was to add alt text to all images, but to do your best to differentiate it for the different images you are adding it to.

Unless you are describing the exact same images, you should not be using the exact same alt text.

Check out the guide I linked above for good advice on crafting great alt text and spend some time thinking about the best way to implement this for your store.

All the best!

Regards,

Don

[RozeCollection]

thanks Don . appreciated

[TopGiftz]

Hello there
I do that on own products
If u have 3 images I would still do the full seo s but add image 1, image 2, etc at the end of the seo text
I do seos as as a freelance worker also.
This is my shop
www.Topgiftz.co.uk
You can contact me via.. contact us page
Khalsa

[TopGiftz]

What I do in my shopify shop
www.TopGiftz.co.uk
Suppose you have 4 images
Please note Alt keys are words when you speak on Google. So treat as a blind man is speak to searching a product on google

1, Nag champa perfume body oil image 1
2, Nag champa body perfume oil image 2
3, Nag champa oil for body perfume image 3
4, Nag champa perfume oil for body image 4
Let me know how you get on
If you need me to do you seo's on your shopify please email me
seeit_likeit_buyit@hotmail.co.uk
Hope all goes well
Khalsa

[TopGiftz]

Yes you are
But the picture you should describe the product
Your characters should not be more then 60
Hope this will help
Khalsa

[JayBeePk]

Can you please elaborate a little further, what should be ideal size of our image? can we keep both alt text and image title same? What are the chances of google reading links inside our images? I am a little newbie in this way. 

Regards.

[JayBeePk]

---

@jeniffer wrote:

Google cannot read images. google only read the text. alt text tells google about the image. alt text is important in SEO 

---

Hey there!

Can I put my Link in Images or Info Graphics? Does Google read that too? Apart, cal alt text and image title can be the same? and what you say for writing good image description practices?

Regards. 

[jasonavada]

There's an article about how to set image alt text on Shopify. Hope this could help!

[Propelguru]

Google won't "boycott" a site for having copied alt text, however the reason for the alt text is to describe each picture because Google crawlers don’t see images as we see. Alt-text is utilized for just SEO, so those with visual impairment or those viewing without images  are served with the alt text rather than the picture. Putting an Alt tag for an image is always beneficial for both users and crawlers.