In the fast-paced world of e-commerce and content-rich websites, images play a central role. Yet many of these sites overlook a key aspect: meaningful alt text. Perhaps you have thousands of product images, or your site includes user-generated content (UGC) where every upload means more work. It’s easy to let alt attributes slide.
But here’s why you shouldn’t: images without proper alt text are not just a minor accessibility flaw—they’re a missed opportunity for both users and search engines. Research by the Baymard Institute found that 55 % of e-commerce sites fail to provide descriptive alt text for “informational” images. Baymard Institute+1 When you think about it, that means over half of sites are excluding a large portion of users and losing SEO value.
For you, as someone involved in web development, digital accessibility, UX or SEO, generating alt text is not a “nice to have”—it’s core to your digital transformation, accessibility compliance (WCAG/EAA) and search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy.
Imagine a shopper—let’s call her Sarah—who uses a screen reader because she has low vision. She lands on a product page: the main image shows a pair of red high-heeled shoes, but the alt attribute says “IMG_1234.jpg” or is missing altogether. Sarah hears “image, link, IMG_1234.jpg” and must guess what she’s seeing. The result? Frustration. Potential purchase aborted.
In a recent audit by the Contentsquare Foundation of the 100 most visited sites in US, Germany, UK, Spain, France and Italy: e-commerce and media sites scored the lowest on accessibility. They found missing alt text and inadequate color contrast among the most common issues. customerexperiencedive.com
From a business perspective, that means:
Missed conversions from users who may leave because they cannot perceive the product properly.
SEO value lost: search engines rely on alt text to understand image content and to index images for image search or web search.
Legal or reputational risk: In regions governed by the European Accessibility Act (EAA) or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, inaccessible content can lead to complaints or claims.
Thus, poor alt text is more than a hygiene issue—it’s a user experience, inclusivity, and business ROI issue.
What do many content creators default to? Here are three frequent but flawed patterns:
Many workflows skip alt text. Image uploads happen, product listings go live, and nobody writes the alt attribute. Baymard’s research flagged this as a major contributor to poor accessibility. Baymard Institute+1
Alt text like alt="IMG_7890.jpg" or alt="DSC_3456" is unfortunately common. It tells nothing about the image purpose or content.
Another pattern: alt="Blue Sneakers | BrandName" or alt="Product Page – Red Dress". Better than nothing—but still not describing what the image shows, how it differs from other product images, or why it matters.
In one recent study by Scribely, focusing on top 45 US retailers, 98% of product pages had either no alt text or alt text so poor it created serious barriers for users with disabilities. scribely.com
These shortcuts cost you: they force assistive-tech users to guess; they reduce your visibility in image search; and they undermine your digital equity mission.
Writing good alt text isn’t complicated—but it does require intention. Here’s how to do it right, with actionable examples.
Describe what matters: Focus on meaning, function and relevant details (colour, size, material, action) rather than every pixel. For example:
alt="Hand-woven cotton scarf in teal color with fringed edges"
Keep it concise: Screen readers often cut off long descriptions; aim for under ~125 characters. zenythgroup.com+1
Avoid redundant phrases: Skip “image of” or “picture of”—screen readers announce it’s an image already.
Include keywords naturally when contextually relevant (for SEO).
Provide context: If an image is a link or serves a functional role, make that clear. If it’s decorative, use an empty alt (alt="") so it’s ignored by assistive tech. Baymard Institute
Bad:
Better:
Optimal (accessibility + SEO):
This optimal version conveys: the gender, colour, material, size, style, and brand context—helpful for both user experience and indexing.
In the 2024 e-commerce audit by Scribely, one product page using generic alt text (“Image 1 – BrandY Laptop”) failed to communicate for screen-reader users, leading to abandonment. In contrast, a competitor with well-written alt text reported fewer assistive-tech support queries and higher conversion from that user segment. scribely.com
Manual alt text entry is feasible for small catalogs—but what about thousands of product images or user-generated content? AI tools and automation become vital.
Bulk scan images and suggest alt text using machine vision combined with contextual text.
Integrate with your CMS so alt text is generated, reviewed, and published seamlessly.
Support multiple languages to reach global audiences and support digital equity.
An academic paper “AltGen: AI-Driven Alt Text Generation for Enhancing EPUB Accessibility” demonstrates that using generative models can reduce accessibility errors by ~97.5 % in certain contexts. arXiv
This suggests the future of alt text generation is both scalable and high-quality—so long as you include human review.
You might use a platform that auto-generates alt text, flags generic descriptions, allows editors to refine them, and publishes via API to your e-commerce product feed.
Here’s how our solution—Corpowid AI—delivers real value for you:
Instant generation of alt text for your entire image library—one-by-one or in bulk—in the language of your website.
Easy review: You get suggested alt text, you can edit before publishing via your CMS.
SEO-friendly and accessibility-compliant: Alt text crafted to support search engine optimisation and WCAG/EAA compliance.
Scalable for digital transformation: Ideal for large product catalogs, UGC platforms, and global site deployments.
Let Corpowid AI write your alt text automatically—saving time, improving UX, and boosting your SEO. Check out full features here: Corpowid AI Alt Text Solution
Your images aren’t just decoration—they’re powerful content assets. Don’t let them remain invisible to screen-reader users or search engines. If your site is skipping descriptive alt text, you’re missing out on conversion, visibility, and digital equity.
Take a proactive step: implement descriptive alt text or let an AI-powered tool like Corpowid AI scale the process for you. The time to act is now.
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