Product Image Alt Text: 12 Real Shop Examples
By AutoBoost Team · 2026-10-29 · 6 min read
Photos two to seven in a product gallery are where shop alt text falls apart. They came back empty, missing, or repeating the same words. We tried 111 online shops on 29 October 2026. 57 loaded, 19 blocked us and 35 did not respond, so we skipped those. We read product pages on 20 of the shops that loaded, took the alt text from the HTML each page served, and picked 12 examples. Alt texts are quoted exactly as served, including a dash in the Fellow text that is the site's own. Each link goes to the page it came from.
Key takeaways
- Five of the 12 examples were good or fine. Seven had a fault. Two had no usable alt text at all (one empty, one missing).
- The best ones name the product, then add one detail a shopper cares about, such as colour, size or pack contents.
- The five good or fine examples ran from 32 to 92 characters. Both examples over 100 characters were faults.
- Filler gets in the way. "Image 1 of 6" and "Product image 1 of 9, which shows" add length and no meaning.
Twelve product alt texts, scored
| Site | Alt text | Characters | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whittard | "Box of Whittard Earl Grey No. 33 black tea containing 50 teabags." | 65 | Good |
| Huel | "Bag of Black Edition Powder with Complete Nutrition callouts" | 60 | Good |
| Fellow, main photo | "Fellow Opus 2 Conical Burr Grinder in matte black—minimalist and ideal for pour-over coffee." | 92 | Fine. Names the product and colour, then drifts into sales copy. |
| Fellow, second photo | missing | 0 | Fault: no alt attribute on photos two to seven |
| Allbirds | "Men's Wool Runner - Natural Grey (Light Grey Sole)" | 50 | Fine. Specific, but the same alt sits on all four angles. |
| Marks and Spencer | "Air-Yarn Crew Neck Jumper 1 of 6" | 32 | Fine. Product name only, no colour, plus a position count. |
| Dunelm | "Cloud Washable Shaggy Rug image 1 of 6" | 38 | Fault: says "image" |
| John Lewis | "Product image 1 of 9, which shows AEG 6000 LFR61844B Freestanding Washing Machine with ProSense, 8kg Load, 1400rpm Spin, White" | 126 | Fault: says "product image" and too long |
| Tentree | "Black-Treeblend-Regular-Fit-Polo" | 32 | Fault: reads like a file name, and the same alt is on four of the five gallery photos |
| BrewDog | "Elvis Juice" | 11 | Fault: the same alt on two different photos |
| Ugmonk | "A set of Analog Kit task and dot grid cards in boxes, two stacks of blank Task Cards, and a long black Analog Card Bar - Pro Kit are arranged on a light beige background." | 170 | Fault: too long |
| Spice Mountain | empty | 0 | Fault: empty alt on the main product photo |
The 12 cover Shopify, WooCommerce and custom-built shops. Whittard serves a second, shorter alt ("Earl Grey Teabags") on the same photo in its carousel.
Name the product, add one fact the buyer needs
The two good examples, Whittard and Huel, do the same few things.
- They say what the item is. "Box of ... black tea" and "Bag of ... Powder" tell a shopper who cannot see the photo what is being sold.
- They give one fact the buyer needs. Whittard adds "50 teabags". Fellow and Allbirds add colour. Pack size, colour and material settle a purchase.
- They keep the brand and the product name. Allbirds and Whittard put both in, once.
- They stay under about 100 characters. Nothing we found over 100 read better for being long.
Four things should stay out of a product alt:
- Words like "image", "photo" or "picture", which a screen reader announces anyway.
- Position counters such as "1 of 6". Dunelm, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer all use them, and they say nothing about what the photo shows.
- Background detail. Ugmonk spends its last words on "a light beige background", which a shopper does not need.
- Sales copy. Fellow's "ideal for pour-over coffee" belongs in the product description.
One note per gallery photo
Where a product has several photos, give each one its own note. A close-up of the stitching and a side view of the same shoe should not share an alt. Allbirds, BrewDog and Tentree all repeat one alt across different shots, so a screen reader user hears the same line every time. Fellow shows the other extreme, with no alt attribute on photos two to seven.
Nine faults across seven rows
Two rows had two faults each.
- Empty or missing: 2. Spice Mountain has an empty alt on its main photo. Fellow has no alt attribute on photos two to seven.
- Says "image" or "product image": 2. Dunelm and John Lewis.
- Same alt on different photos: 2. BrewDog and Tentree. Allbirds does the same but its alt is good, so we marked it Fine.
- Too long: 2. John Lewis at 126 characters and Ugmonk at 170.
- Reads like a file name: 1. Tentree's "Black-Treeblend-Regular-Fit-Polo".
We did not find keyword stuffing or alt text that was only a colour in the main photos we read. We did see one colour-only alt, "Black", on a small colour swatch beside the Fellow photos. It is five characters long and tells a shopper nothing about the product.
Some of this looks like a template, not a person. Dunelm, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer each build the alt from the product name plus a counter. If that is true on your shop, fixing the template fixes every product at once.
How many characters a product photo needs
Ten of our 12 examples had text. Their lengths, shortest to longest, were 11, 32, 32, 38, 50, 60, 65, 92, 126 and 170 characters, with a middle value of 55. The two over 100 characters were both faults. The only one under 20 was BrewDog's 11-character "Elvis Juice", which is accurate but gives no detail and is copied onto a second photo.
A workable target is 40 to 90 characters. That is enough for the product name, its colour or size, and one more fact. If you cannot say it in 90, you are probably describing the room, not the product.
Tip: fix the gallery, not only the main photo
In this sample, Fellow gave its main photo a good alt and left photos two to seven with none, while Tentree and Allbirds repeated one alt across several angles. Check photos two onward on a few of your own products. The same product-and-one-fact rule suits food and menu photo alt text and book cover alt text, and the main guide to bulk alt text covers the whole library.
The free AutoBoost SEO plugin connects your WordPress site to the AutoBoost SEO app. The app writes missing alt text for the images in your posts in bulk, and you approve each one before it saves to the post and the media library. Check that it names the product, gives one useful fact and stays short.