# SEO Dopers: Should I Fill Out ALT TEXT For My Product Images?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seo-dopers-should-i-fill-out-alt-text-for-my-product-images/656555
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 24, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seo-dopers-should-i-fill-out-alt-text-for-my-product-images/656555 "2013-04-24T01:31:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seo-dopers-should-i-fill-out-alt-text-for-my-product-images/656555/1 "2013-04-24T01:31:01Z")

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Running an online retail shop.  
Should I bother going through and fill in the Alt Text for all of my product images?  
I’ve got dozens of pics for a lot of my products, including various colors.  
Right now I’m labeling the item, the angle the view is from, and the color of this fashion product.  
Will this increase my visibility in Amazon’s organic search results?

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### Author: ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seo-dopers-should-i-fill-out-alt-text-for-my-product-images/656555/2 "2013-04-24T01:56:22Z")

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It might or might not help with SEO, but it certainly won’t hurt, and it can have other benefits (making your site more handicap-accessible, for instance).

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### Author: ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seo-dopers-should-i-fill-out-alt-text-for-my-product-images/656555/3 "2013-04-24T03:52:32Z")

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> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It might or might not help with SEO, but it certainly won’t hurt, and it can have other benefits (making your site more handicap-accessible, for instance).

This. I suspect accessibility is a lot more important than SEO readiness here. I know that in Ontario, we are [required](http://www.9thsphere.com/blog/aoda-compliance/) to do things like subtitle videos for accessibility–that was part of my just-concluded part-time job–so providing proper alt-text, or explicitly defining its absence, is probably important.