Summary
This blog post gives you a better understanding of what alt text is, how it is used in eCommerce, and how it can be used to enhance the user experience for all.
Imagine opening a product page and experiencing slow internet.
While the text and other elements may load, images, videos, or graphic-intensive elements may take some time. It can be an issue for someone in a hurry, especially if the image has essential information crucial to understanding the text.
This minor hiccup may be trivial for us, but imagine what it can do to those with vision problems or other disabilities. It is in situations like these where alt-text is crucial. It helps explain what the image is about, providing context to the user.
Surprisingly, 22.1% of all homepage images had missing alternative text, and the number is even lower when it comes to other pages. This often-overlooked aspect can often hold your eCommerce website back. By simply adding alt-text, you can boost SEO, improve accessibility, and ultimately sales.
In this blog post, we’ll delve deeper into the world of alt-text, specifically focusing on how AI alt-text generators can revolutionize your eCommerce strategy.
Table of Contents:
- What is Alt-Text?
- How is Alt-Text Used in eCommerce?
- What are the 5 Benefits of Alt-Text Generators?
- Conclusion
What is Alt-text?
Alt-text, short for alternative text, is a descriptive attribute assigned to an image. Its primary purpose is to provide a textual representation of the image content for users who may be visually impaired or unable to view the images due to technical issues.
For eCommerce businesses, alt-text plays a dual role. It enhances accessibility, ensuring everyone can access and understand product information, regardless of their abilities.
Simultaneously, it boosts SEO by helping search engine crawlers understand the content of your product pages, ultimately leading to improved ranking and visibility.
How is Alt-Text Used In eCommerce?
Having alt-text can be an excellent add-on for your website, but in terms of eCommerce, it serves several purposes.
Here is a look at how eCommerce brands create effective alt-text for improving their brand’s usability, SEO, and navigation:
1. Product Descriptions
High-quality product images are essential for driving sales, but just having good-quality images on your site won’t serve the purpose. Each image should include an alt-text, which provides valuable information about the product descriptions beyond visual elements.
By describing the product’s features, materials, and functionalities in detail, alt-text helps users gain a comprehensive understanding of what they are purchasing.
Also Read: AI-Powered Alt-Text Generators: A Game-Changer for SEO and Content Marketing
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Boost
Many eCommerce websites tend to use generic file names and no alt-text for these images. This may not be an issue for your customers, but it can have a negative impact on your SEO.
Search engines rely heavily on textual content to understand the relevance and context of web pages. Incorporating relevant keywords and product information into your alt-text helps the search engine algorithm understand what the page or image is about, helping it index your website better.
This increased visibility leads to a wider audience, ultimately driving more potential customers to your online store.
3. Navigating Galleries and Slideshows
eCommerce websites often showcase products through image galleries or slideshows. Alt-Text plays a crucial role in guiding users through these visual displays.
With descriptive alt-text, users can grasp the essence of each image, facilitating a seamless browsing experience.
4. Compliance with Accessibility Standards
Many countries have regulations in place regarding website accessibility, requiring businesses to provide alternative text for all images. Ensuring your eCommerce site complies with these regulations prevents potential legal ramifications and maintains a positive public image.
What are the 5 Benefits of Alt-Text Generators?
Now that we know that alt-text for your website is vital, the question may arise – how can it be done efficiently and accurately? This is where AI alt-text generators step in as game-changers for eCommerce businesses.
Manually creating descriptive text for every product image can be a time-consuming and resource-intensive process. Contextual AI alt-text generators can help you speed up the process, as they can look at your entire website and auto-suggest alt-text options that are accurate and SEO-friendly.
Using alt-text generators, you can simply check for corrections and make updates for multiple images. This helps you in several ways, such as:
1. Time Efficiency
You can generate alt-text copies for your product images in a matter of seconds.
All you need to do is input the context and keywords that you want to use, and the alt-text AI generator can provide you with options that you can select or edit. This saves you countless hours that would be spent coming up with alt-texts manually.
2. Improved Accuracy
For generating alt-text for specific products, you need a team of experts with domain and writing expertise. These resources are tough to find, leading to most of the alt-texts being used in product images being too generic or with significant errors.
AI models are trained on massive datasets of images and text, enabling them to generate highly accurate and relevant alt-text, even for complex product images. Thus, using a free AI alt-text generator, you can create relevant alt-text for your products or refine them further if necessary.
3. Consistency and Quality
Maintaining a consistent and high-quality standard across your alt-text can be challenging with manual creation. AI alt-text generators ensure consistent formatting and tone, eliminating inconsistencies and ensuring a professional image for your brand.
4. Keyword Optimization
AI models can identify relevant keywords and incorporate them into your alt-text, optimizing your website for search engines and improving your organic ranking. This can lead to increased website traffic and, ultimately, more potential customers.
5. Bulk Processing
The best alt-text generators can process large volumes of images simultaneously, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This is particularly beneficial for eCommerce businesses with extensive product catalogs.
AI-generated alt-text for bulk images has significant accuracy, enabling eCommerce brands to generate alt-text for their products. Your teams will only need to check the final output for any corrections or refinement, improving overall accuracy significantly.
Also Read: AI Alt-Text Generators for WordPress Users: A Comprehensive Guide
Conclusion
Adding alt-text to your digital content helps you in more ways than one. It is not merely a powerful tactic to boost SEO or improve accessibility; it goes a long way in improving the effectiveness of your website and overall user experience.
By embracing AI alt-text generators, you can unlock a treasure trove of benefits and propel your online business toward success. From ease of use to improving user experience and getting a competitive edge, alt-text AI generators offer a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses of all sizes.
If you need help prioritizing and improving alt-text for your eCommerce brand, Hurix Digital is one company that can handle all your website’s accessibility needs. We offer a range of solutions, including providing an alt-text generator for free.
Our AI-powered alt-text generation, content creation, and website optimization services can work collectively to help you thrive in the competitive world of online commerce.
Try our free AI text generator today and discover how AI can revolutionize your eCommerce strategy.
