How to fix image alt on BigCommerce for WP

Steps for BigCommerce for WP

1. Product image alt text is managed in your BigCommerce admin (see BigCommerce steps above); changes sync to the WordPress storefront automatically via the BigCommerce for WordPress plugin.
2. For theme/page-builder images added directly in WordPress: WP Admin → Media → Library → click image → fill 'Alternative Text' field.

<img src="blue-leather-wallet.jpg" alt="Blue leather wallet with card slots, open view">

<!-- Decorative image — intentionally empty alt -->
<img src="divider-ornament.png" alt="">

What is image alt?

Every image on a webpage can carry a short text description called "alt text" (alternative text), written inside the image's HTML tag as `alt="your description here"`. When an image has no `alt` attribute at all, assistive technologies like screen readers — used by people who are blind or have low vision — have nothing to announce, so they may read out a raw file name like "img_38472.jpg" or skip the image entirely. WCAG Success Criterion 1.1.1 ("Non-text Content") requires that all meaningful images have a text alternative, and decorative images are explicitly marked as decorative using an empty `alt=""` so they are silently skipped.

**Accessibility & legal risk:** Failing WCAG 1.1.1 is one of the most commonly cited issues in accessibility lawsuits and demand letters under the ADA (US), AODA (Canada), EAA (EU), and similar laws worldwide. A single missing `alt` attribute on a product image can be enough to trigger a complaint. **SEO & organic traffic:** Search engine crawlers cannot "see" images — they rely entirely on alt text to understand image content. Well-written alt text helps your product images rank in Google Image Search and reinforces keyword relevance on product and category pages, driving incremental organic traffic. **Conversions:** When images fail to load (slow connections, CDN errors), the alt text is displayed in place of the image, keeping shoppers informed about what they were looking at and reducing bounce rate.

See the complete Image alt guide for every platform and the full background.