How An Agency Adds Alt Tags To Products In Bulk
A Collection of Shopify Guides
Introduction
> More GuidesThis guide will walk you through the steps of adding alt tags to your existing Shopify product images in bulk.
To follow this guide, you must have existing Shopify products which include images AND you must have a G Suite account.
- Export your products as a CSV file
- Upload your product CSV to Google Sheets
- Prepare your CSV for editing
- Write effective Alt tags
- Save your CSV file to your computer
- Import your CSV file to Shopify
Export your products as a CSV file
From your Shopify admin, go to Products > All products
Click Export
From the dialogue, choose All products
Select CSV file for Excel, Numbers, or another spreadsheet program
Click Export Products
If you have fewer than 50 products, you will receive a download link for your CSV file. If you have more than 50 products, your store owner will receive an email with your CSV file as an attachment. Contact your store owner for the CSV file to proceed
Upload your product CSV to Google Sheets
Log in to your Google account
On the Google Sheets page, click Blank in the Start a new spreadsheet section
From the Untitled Spreadsheet page, go to File > Import...
Under Import File, select Upload
Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the CSV, and select the CSV
In the Import file dialogue, select Import action> Replace spreadsheet, Separator character > Detect automatically, and Convert text to numbers and dates > Yes
Click Import
Prepare your CSV for editing
If the Body (HTML) column (C) contains very tall rows, right-click on the Column Header (C), and select Hide Column from the dialogue
At the top of the page, select View > Freeze > 1 row
The Alt Tag Column is located under (AA) Click and drag the scroll bar at the bottom of the page, and scroll right until you can see Image Alt Text (AA)
Alt Text: 2H Media's yellow rubber duck with orange beak
Write effective alt tags
Effective alt tags describe the relevant contents of an image.
To write effective alt tags for a product image, you will first have to view that product image.
For the first row of the spreadsheet, select the cell in the Image Src Column (Y), and press Alt + Enter to open the image in a new browser tab
Take note of the image's relevant content, and close the image window - relevant content includes all objects contained within the image such as products, product packaging, people, and places. For more information on alt-tag content, see this official Shopify article
From the Google Sheets window containing your CSV, select the cell in the Image Alt Text column (AA)
Enter your alt text. We recommend 4-5 words. The maximum allowed number of words is 16
Repeat these steps for every row in the spreadsheet
If you have to take a break part-way through, don't worry; your progress will be saved automatically in Google Sheets
Save your CSV file to your computer
At the top of the page, select File > Download > Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet)
Save the file to your computer and note the location of the file
