Re: Is there a way I can bulk upload ALT text to images etc on my shopify site?

Is there a way I can bulk upload ALT text to images etc on my shopify site?

Endlessretro
Trailblazer
172 0 64

Good Morning, 

 

I am just wondering if anybody is aware of a way I can bulk upload ALT text to images etc on my site? I have a lot of images across my site and have realised I haven't input ALT text as I have gone along so this is now missing from everywhere - is there an easy way for me to do this aside from going back through every single image etc?

 

URL: https://endless-retro-22.myshopify.com/

Theme: SHELLA 

 

Thank you in advance,

 

 

Replies 9 (9)

PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
7721 678 1619

Bulk CSV import

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/import-export/using-csv#:~:text=in%20this%20column.-,Ima... 

 

https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/import-export/using-csv#add-multiple-product-images-in-a... 

 

Or use an app like ez-exporter, or matrixify , or automation tools

https://matrixify.app/tutorials/update-image-alt-text/ 

 

An alternative if you've sanely named your images for accessibility and SEO is to customize a theme to use the filename in liquid for the alt-text output. Useful path if there's ALOT of products and it will take some time for someone to backfill all the alt-text. Or just set the all text to the product.title, or the first sentence of the product.description , etc.

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Renars
Shopify Partner
313 32 374

Hi @Endlessretro 

 

Renars here from Matrixify app.
Thank you for suggesting the use of Matrixify for this @PaulNewton 

 

Following the previously linked tutorial you sure can bulk Update Image Alt Text.

There you can also export the alt text and see other basic image details such as links and dimensions.

 

I hope that this helps, if you need assistance with this task using Matrixify app, please reach out to our support directly.

Matrixify | Bulk Import Export Update | https://apps.shopify.com/excel-export-import | https://matrixify.app
Kalen_Jordan
Shopify Partner
801 39 146

Am I correct in understanding that the bulk export/import would only pull in product images and not others?

Greta
Shopify Staff (Retired)
1242 132 167

Hey there, @Endlessretro!

 

That's a great question, and I'm glad to hear that you want to add alt text to your images. It is a great inclusion from an accessibility standpoint, and it can also help with your store's SEO. 

 

The easiest way to bulk upload alt text to all images is by using an app. You can find the full list of apps here, but here are some popular ones:

 

 

I also wanted to share this blog post that includes some alt text tips, as well other image optimization strategies:

 

 

I hope this information is helpful! 

Greta | Shopify 
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Rich_Caseo_AI
Shopify Partner
14 0 3

Hi Endless,

Rich here from Caseo.ai. I would personally avoid using simple bulk alt text. Old school non-ai alt text apps typically automate the process by inserting generic product titles and variants as image descriptions. This method, while efficient for large catalogs, falls short in providing meaningful context and descriptive detail, especially for users with visual impairments, low internet bandwidth, or image display issues.

Instead, use properly crafted alt text that conveys the basic information about an image but also its context and relevance to the product or the page. It is time-consuming, but I'd recommend our app Caseo AI or Alttext.ai which are both A.I powered.

Hum_Flowerpots
Tourist
8 0 2

I know this is an old thread, but only just seen it!  I am interested in the comment from @PaulNewton  about customizing a theme to use the filename in liquid for the alt-text output.  All my image files have been given alt-text friendly file names, so this might work for me if I only knew how to do it...

Rich_Caseo_AI
Shopify Partner
14 0 3

Hi, thanks for the question, honestly to use the filename for the ALT Text, it would be a big coding job as the ALT Text can not be auto-populated by the file name and Shopify renames the file too adding sizing information to it. It's a great idea though. We've just upped our free trial to 50 complementary ALT Text generations if you want to try it out caseo.ai to see if it's a good alternative. 

PaulNewton
Shopify Partner
7721 678 1619

@Hum_Flowerpots 

Knowing how to do something and actually doing it are two very different things.

For implementing this you need to be very comfortable with liquid and editing themes.

And you have to test thoroughly to make sure parts of the website aren't outputting gibberish you otherwise wont know is happening, but may surface as conversion problems or accessibility complaints.

 

For using an images/media'sw filename as alt test.

An image object src url contains the filename, parse it out from that.

https://shopify.dev/docs/api/liquid/objects/image#image-src

or use the direct output to parse https://shopify.dev/docs/api/liquid/objects/image#image-referencing-the-image-object-directly

 

If using an asset filter via a string name the filename is already known somehow so just put it in a variable to use with both the filename and alt text logic

https://shopify.dev/docs/api/liquid/filters/asset_img_url

 

For using If this is for dynamic images throughout a website it can be a lot of work to update all image logic behavior.

Some themes sanely have a snippet for handling image outputs, but most don't have 100% of media output covered like this.

For people to read use string filters to get a cleaner set of characters and remove any extras added by the shopify CDN.

 

More advanced:

map the filenames into a metafield or metaobject that have the alt text as key/value pairs. A JSON metafield could simplify the logic in some cases as it allows properties to be accessed in liquid. This still requires having clean filenames returned/parsed by liquid.

for small sets of media/files using locale files for key/value pairs is also valid.

 

 

Contact paull.newton+shopifyforum@gmail.com for the solutions you need


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Hum_Flowerpots
Tourist
8 0 2

Thanks for the very detailed reply Paul! Very interesting and helpful. Sadly it's way beyond my capabilities, so I will have to bite the bullet and upload Alt Text manually.