Hey Shopify owner, are you adding alt text to all of your images? Because you definitely should be!
Here’s How!
- From your Shopify dashboard, click on Customize next to your theme.
- From your customizer, just click an image.
- And then all you’ll need to do is just click Edit Alt Text. I know, it’s super easy.
- Add a quick description of what the photo is…Bonus points for using searchable terms that Google loves.
- Don’t forget to hit the save button (top right corner) before you exit the customizer!
Editing alt text not only helps your SEO (search engine optimization…..this is what makes Google tell people that you exist, so it’s super important), but it also is really helpful for accessibility for visually impaired people.
How does it work?
Alt is short for alternative (you probably figured that out…but just in case). It does three main things that are helpful.
- This is what Google indexes, so it knows what your website is about. If your image is relevant to what you’re talking about on the page, you get extra SEO points.
- Sometimes the internet struggles, and images are the first thing sacrificed when pages are having a hard time loading. If you don’t have alt text, there will usually just be some sort of icon that indicates a broken image…nobody will ever know what you wanted them to see there. BUT if you have alt text, it shows right up to explain what you wish your visitors were looking at.
- There is this amazing software that reads the screen for people who are visually impaired. The software can describe the images to those visitors, by reading the alt text you provided. This expands your reach, and your client base! It’s a win all around.
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