How to fix image alt on Squarespace

Steps for Squarespace

1. **Content images:** In the Page Editor, click on an image block → click the pencil/edit icon → in the 'Image' settings panel, enter a description in the 'Alt Text' field → Apply.
2. **Gallery images:** Edit the gallery block → click on an individual image → select 'Edit' → fill in the 'Alt Text' (or 'Title' + 'Description' depending on gallery type — the Description maps to alt text in most gallery styles).
3. **Product images (Squarespace Commerce):** Pages → your store page → click a product → in the product editor, click an image → enter text in the 'Alt text' or 'Filename/Caption' field. For newer versions (7.1): edit a product → click each image → 'Alt Text' field appears in the right panel.
4. **Squarespace 7.1 SEO image alt:** Settings → SEO → does not bulk-set alt text; each image must be edited individually in the content editor as described above.
5. **Custom code / Code Blocks:** If you've added raw `<img>` tags via a Code Block, edit that block (Pages → open page → click Code Block → Edit) and add `alt` attributes directly to the HTML.

<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.