How to fix image redundant alt on Shopify
Remove or clear the alt text on images whose description is already provided by visible text immediately surrounding them, so screen readers don't read the same information twice.
Steps for Shopify
- Go to Online Store → Themes → click 'Customize' on your active theme.
- For product images on product pages: in the theme editor, these are rendered by Liquid; go to Online Store → Themes → Actions → Edit Code.
- Open the relevant section file (commonly sections/product-template.liquid, sections/main-product.liquid, or snippets/product-media.liquid depending on your theme).
- Find the <img> tag for the product image. If it is inside an anchor tag that also outputs the product title as visible text, change the alt attribute value to an empty string: alt="".
- For collection page product cards, check sections/collection-template.liquid or snippets/product-card.liquid and apply the same empty alt fix to any image whose parent link already contains the product title as visible text.
- Save the file, then preview the store and verify with the axe browser extension.
What is image redundant alt?
Every image on a webpage can carry an "alt" attribute — a short text description that screen readers announce to blind or low-vision shoppers instead of (or in addition to) showing the image. When an image sits right next to visible text that already says the exact same thing — for example, a product photo inside a link that also contains the product name — a screen reader will read that description twice in a row. This is called "redundant alt text." The fix is to make the image's alt attribute empty (alt="") so the screen reader skips the image and only reads the visible text once, giving a clean, natural experience.
Screen reader users — a significant and legally protected segment of shoppers — hear redundant information announced back-to-back, which is confusing and frustrating, and can cause them to abandon your store. Accessibility failures like this create legal exposure under the ADA (USA), the European Accessibility Act (EU), and similar laws worldwide, which have already resulted in costly lawsuits against online retailers. Beyond legal risk, accessibility is a known quality signal: Google's Lighthouse tool flags these issues and they contribute to a lower accessibility score, which can indirectly affect rankings. Fixing this issue is low effort and directly improves the shopping experience for customers using assistive technology.
See the complete Image redundant alt guide for every platform and the full background.
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