Alt Text
Alt text is a short written description of an image, set in the HTML alt attribute, that screen readers announce to visually impaired users and that search engines read to understand what a picture shows and when to surface it in image search.
Product images need alt text because a search engine cannot see a photo; it can only read the description you attach to it. Good alt text states plainly what the image contains, for example the product name, colour, and material, rather than stuffing keywords or repeating the same phrase on every image. If the image is purely decorative, an empty alt attribute is correct so screen readers skip it.
The honest caveat is that alt text describes an image; it is not a place to hide content you want ranked. Specifications, dimensions, ingredient lists, and customer reviews must exist as real, selectable text on the page. When that detail is baked into an image or an infographic instead, search engines and AI answer tools cannot read it, so the product looks thinner than it is and gets passed over for a competitor whose details are in plain text.
Treat alt text as one accessibility and discovery signal among many, not a ranking lever on its own. It helps the right people and the right crawlers find an image, but the substance that earns the page its place still has to live in the visible copy.