If you sell internationally on Shopify, you probably translate your product titles, descriptions, and even metafields. But there is one resource type that most merchants overlook: image alt text. Failing to translate image alt text on Shopify means your product images are invisible to screen readers and local search engines in every non-default language your store supports.
Alt text is the short description attached to an image that tells screen readers what the image shows and helps search engines index it. When a French customer browses your store with a screen reader and hits a product image with English-only alt text like “Black leather boots side view”, the experience breaks. The same applies to Google - your images will not rank in French image search results if the alt text is in English.
Why Alt Text Translation Matters
Alt text sits at the intersection of accessibility and SEO, making it one of the highest-value fields to translate per character.
Accessibility compliance. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) takes effect in June 2025 and applies to all e-commerce sites selling in the EU. Providing alt text in the user’s language is part of meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements. Stores that serve multiple EU markets need alt text in each market’s language.
Image search rankings. Google Images drives significant product discovery traffic. According to Shopify’s own data, image search is one of the top referral sources for product pages. Google matches alt text to search queries in the user’s language. If your alt text is only in English, your products will not appear when a German shopper searches “schwarze Lederstiefel” (black leather boots) in Google Images.
Social sharing context. When products are shared on social media or messaging apps and the image fails to load, the alt text is displayed as fallback. Translated alt text ensures the fallback makes sense to the recipient regardless of their language.
What Gets Translated
Shopify stores alt text on two resource types through its translation API:
- Product images - The alt text field on each product image. Example: “Women’s merino wool sweater in navy blue, front view”
- Collection images - The alt text field on collection featured images. Example: “Summer collection featuring outdoor furniture and garden accessories”
These are the images that LocaleFlow translates automatically. Theme-level images (hero banners, promotional graphics) use hardcoded strings in Liquid templates and require theme localization, which is a separate process.
How LocaleFlow Handles Alt Text Translation
LocaleFlow treats alt text like any other translatable resource. When you run a translation job, it reads the alt text from every product and collection image, translates it into your target languages, and writes the translations back through Shopify’s API.
Step 1: Connect your store. Install LocaleFlow from the Shopify App Store and authorize access. LocaleFlow reads your product catalog including all image alt text.
Step 2: Configure your languages. Select the target languages from your Shopify Markets configuration. Alt text is included in the standard translation scope alongside product titles, descriptions, and other fields.
Step 3: Run translation. LocaleFlow translates all selected resource types in a single job. Alt text translations are written to Shopify’s translation layer, so they appear automatically when a customer views your store in their language.
Step 4: Automatic sync. When you update alt text on a product image (or upload a new image with alt text), LocaleFlow detects the change and re-translates it during the next sync cycle. No manual intervention needed.
Writing Alt Text That Translates Well
Good alt text for a multilingual store follows a few principles that make AI translation more accurate:
Be descriptive and specific. “Product image” translates poorly because there is no meaningful content. “Red ceramic coffee mug with white handle, 350ml capacity” gives the AI clear nouns, adjectives, and context to work with.
Avoid idioms and slang. “Kicks that pop” might describe sneakers creatively in English, but AI translation will struggle with the figurative meaning. Stick to literal descriptions: “White leather sneakers with neon green accent on sole.”
Include product attributes. Mention the material, color, size context, and viewing angle. These concrete details translate accurately across languages and provide the search terms international customers actually use.
Keep it under 125 characters. This is the practical limit for screen readers. Shorter alt text also translates more reliably because there is less room for AI to introduce errors.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Leaving alt text empty. If there is no alt text on an image, there is nothing to translate. Audit your product catalog and ensure every product image has descriptive alt text before running translations. Shopify’s bulk editor can help you fill in missing alt text across products.
Stuffing keywords into alt text. Writing “buy black leather boots cheap black boots leather boots men” as alt text will produce gibberish translations and violates accessibility guidelines. Write for humans first, and the SEO benefit follows naturally.
Translating decorative image alt text. Purely decorative images (backgrounds, dividers, spacers) should have empty alt text (alt=""), not translated descriptions. Only translate alt text on images that convey product information.
Ready to translate your image alt text? Install LocaleFlow from the Shopify App Store and start translating today.
Written by Kwadwo Adu, Co-founder of LocaleFlow