Documentation

AltifyAI — Automated Alt Text for Shopify

Instantly generate SEO-optimized, accessibility-compliant alt text for every product image in your Shopify store — powered by advanced AI vision models.

What is AltifyAI?

AltifyAI is a Shopify-native app that uses the Altify.Ai engine to automatically generate descriptive, accurate alt text for your product images. Alt text is critical for two reasons:

Accessibility

Screen readers rely on alt text to describe images to visually impaired users. Well-crafted alt text ensures your store is inclusive and meets WCAG 2.1 standards.

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SEO Performance

Search engines cannot "see" images — they read alt text instead. Descriptive alt text helps your products rank in Google Image Search and improves overall organic traffic.

Did you know? Stores with complete alt text coverage report up to 30% more organic image-search traffic and significantly better accessibility scores.

Three Simple Steps

AltifyAI handles everything automatically. Here's what happens under the hood:

01

Image Detection

AltifyAI monitors your Shopify store for new and existing product images. When a new product is added (or a bulk update is triggered), the app queues those images for processing.

02

AI Analysis

Each image is sent to the AltifyAI vision engine. The AI analyses the image content — objects, colours, context, and your product title/vendor metadata — to compose a meaningful description.

03

Automatic Assignment

The generated alt text is written directly back to Shopify via the Admin API. No manual copy-pasting. Your product images are updated in real time, with a full audit trail in Processing History.

Everything You Need

AltifyAI is packed with controls so you can tune exactly how alt text is generated and formatted for your brand.

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Smart Product Description Image SEO

Automatically detect images inside Shopify product descriptions and generate missing ALT text using AI. Improves accessibility, SEO ranking, and product discoverability without manual editing.

Automatic Processing

Automatically generate alt text when new products are created — zero manual effort required.

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Bulk Update

Process your entire product catalogue in one click. Select individual products or run store-wide updates.

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Custom Prompts

Override the default AI behaviour with your own ChatGPT prompt using the {{AltText}} macro for brand-specific tone.

Single Product Processing

Generate SEO-friendly alt text instantly for individual products with AI-powered image analysis.

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Prefix & Suffix

Wrap every generated alt text with a custom prefix or suffix — great for brand name inclusion.

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Keyword Control

Add manual keywords to bias the AI, or set negative keywords to exclude unwanted terms.

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Length Enforcement

Set a maximum character limit so your alt text never exceeds your CMS or accessibility guidelines.

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Formatting Rules

Auto-add ending periods, remove quotes, strip unwanted symbols — all configurable per store.

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Active Products Only

Filter bulk updates to only process published/active products, skipping drafts and archived items.

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Email Notifications

Receive an email notification when bulk update jobs complete so you always know when processing is done.

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Processing History

Full audit trail of every image processed — view and manually override any generated alt text.

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Overwrite Control

Choose to skip existing alt text, overwrite everything, or only replace manually-written text.

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Auto-Tagging

Optionally tag products automatically when alt text has been generated for easy filtering in Shopify.

Platform Support

AltifyAI is built natively for Shopify, and the underlying AltifyAI engine also supports a wide range of platforms:

ShopifyNative

Up & Running in Minutes

Follow these steps to have AltifyAI generating alt text for your store.

  1. Install AltifyAI from the Shopify App Store.
  2. The app authenticates with your store automatically via OAuth.
  3. 3Open and enable the plugin. Configure automatic processing, keyword rules, and formatting options.
  4. 4Run your first to process existing products. Select products in Shopify → "..." menu → Altify AI.
  5. 5Review results in . Edit any generated alt text manually if needed.
  6. 6Enable automatic processing so new products are handled without any manual action.
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Need help?

Open the FAQ page for common questions, or contact AltifyAI support directly.