How to fix link name on Shopify

Steps for Shopify

1. Go to Online Store → Themes → (your active theme) → Actions → Edit code.
2. Search for the offending link in the relevant Liquid template (e.g. sections/header.liquid for nav/cart icons, snippets/icon-*.liquid for SVG icons, or sections/footer.liquid for social links).
3. For icon-only links (e.g. cart, search, account), add aria-label to the <a> tag: <a href='/cart' aria-label='Shopping cart'>…</a>.
4. For social icon links in the footer snippet, locate each <a> and add aria-label='Follow us on Instagram' (or the relevant network).
5. For linked product images in theme sections, open the relevant section file and ensure every <img> inside an <a> has a descriptive alt attribute — Shopify's Dawn theme uses {{ product.featured_image | image_tag: alt: product.title }}, so check that alt values are not blank.
6. Save changes and verify with the axe DevTools browser extension or Shopify's built-in Theme Inspector.

<a href="/collections/shoes" aria-label="Shop Women's Running Shoes">
  <!-- icon or image with no visible text -->
  <img src="shoes-banner.jpg" alt="">
</a>

<!-- OR: visually-hidden text technique -->
<a href="/pages/returns">
  <svg aria-hidden="true" focusable="false">…</svg>
  <span class="visually-hidden">View our return policy</span>
</a>

/* Visually-hidden utility class */
.visually-hidden {
  position: absolute;
  width: 1px;
  height: 1px;
  padding: 0;
  margin: -1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  clip: rect(0, 0, 0, 0);
  white-space: nowrap;
  border: 0;
}

What is link name?

Every hyperlink on a webpage must have a meaningful text label that screen readers can announce to blind or low-vision users. A link's accessible name can come from the visible text inside it, an image's alt text, an `aria-label` attribute, or an `aria-labelledby` reference. When a link contains only an icon, an image with no alt text, or an empty `<a>` tag, screen readers have nothing meaningful to say — they may just announce "link" or skip it entirely. WCAG Success Criterion 2.4.4 ("Link Purpose – In Context") requires that every link's purpose can be determined from its label alone or from its surrounding context.

Links without accessible names fail WCAG 2.4.4 (Level AA), which is the legal accessibility standard referenced in the ADA, Section 508 (US), EN 301 549 (EU), and similar laws worldwide — exposing your store to demand letters, complaints, and lawsuits that are increasingly common in ecommerce. Beyond legal risk, screen-reader users (estimated at 7–8 million in the US alone) simply cannot navigate your store's menus, product cards, or checkout links, costing you real customers and revenue. Search engines also use link anchor text as a ranking signal; unnamed links are dead weight that dilutes your internal linking strategy and can suppress category and product page rankings. Fixing this issue improves accessibility, SEO, and conversion simultaneously.

See the complete Link name guide for every platform and the full background.