How to fix seo product image alt filename on BigCommerce

Steps for BigCommerce

1. Go to Admin → Products → View and open a product.
2. Click the 'Images & Videos' tab.
3. Click a product image thumbnail; an 'Image Description' field appears below it.
4. Enter your descriptive alt text in the 'Image Description' field (BigCommerce uses this as the alt attribute).
5. Click Save. Repeat for every image and every product.
6. For bulk updates, export your product catalog via Admin → Products → Export, edit the 'image_description' columns in the CSV, and re-import.

What is seo product image alt filename?

Every image on a webpage has an "alt" attribute — a short text description baked into the HTML code. When your ecommerce platform automatically names an image's alt text after its filename (e.g. "IMG_4823.jpg" or "product-blue-01_grande.webp"), that filename becomes what search engines and screen readers "see" instead of a meaningful description. Descriptive alt text — like "Blue cotton crew-neck sweater, front view" — tells both Google and visually impaired shoppers exactly what the image contains. Most platforms either leave alt text blank or copy the raw filename, and fixing this is a straightforward, high-impact task.

Google Images is a significant source of product discovery, and Google explicitly uses alt text as a primary signal to understand and rank images in search results — poor alt text means your product photos may never appear in image searches at all. Descriptive alt text also reinforces your page's keyword relevance, giving an additional ranking signal for organic web search. Beyond SEO, missing or nonsensical alt text is an accessibility failure: screen-reader users cannot understand your product images, which creates legal exposure under accessibility laws (ADA, WCAG, EU Accessibility Act) and alienates a sizable portion of potential customers. Fixing alt text across your product catalog is one of the highest-ROI, lowest-effort SEO improvements available to a store owner.

See the complete Seo product image alt filename guide for every platform and the full background.