Solved: How to force alt images tag with product title

Source: Dev.to

Why It Happens

The problem almost never originates from the core platform (Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.). It lives in the theme’s template files that control the HTML output. A developer, rushing to meet a deadline, simply forgot to add the code that fetches the product’s name and inserts it into the alt attribute of the “ tag.

Typical broken markup:

What we really need:

[Image: get_name(); ?>]

Understanding this is key: we’re not fixing a deep system flaw; we’re correcting an oversight in the presentation layer.

1️⃣ Quick‑and‑Dirty Client‑Side Fix (JavaScript)

Use case: “I need to get this fixed in the next 15 minutes before the next status meeting.”

Add the script to your theme’s footer or via a tag manager. It waits for the document to be ready, finds the main product title on the page, and injects that text into any empty alt attributes within the product’s container.

jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
    // 1️⃣ Find the main product title on the page.
    //    Adjust the selector if your theme uses a different markup.
    var productTitle = $('h1.product_title').text().trim();

    // 2️⃣ If a title was found, locate the main product image.
    if (productTitle) {
        // Adjust the selector for the image if needed.
        var productImage = $('.woocommerce-product-gallery__image img');

        // 3️⃣ Set the alt attribute only if it is currently empty.
        if (productImage.length && !productImage.attr('alt')) {
            productImage.attr('alt', productTitle);
        }
    }
});

⚠️ Warning: This is a band‑aid. It fixes the problem for users and crawlers that execute JavaScript, but the initial HTML source still contains an empty alt. Use it only as a temporary measure.

2️⃣ Permanent Server‑Side Fix (Theme Template)

Use case: “I want the correct HTML served from the server every time—no flicker, no hacks.”

Steps

1. Create a child theme – never edit parent‑theme files directly; otherwise, updates will overwrite your changes.

2. Locate the template file that renders the product image. In WooCommerce this is usually:

   your-theme/woocommerce/single-product/product-image.php

3. Find the “ tag (or the wp_get_attachment_image() call) and modify the alt attribute to pull the product title dynamically.

Before & After Example

Before (the culprit – empty alt):

// Example of 'before' code
$html = '';
$html .= wp_get_attachment_image( $post_thumbnail_id, 'woocommerce_single', false, array(
    'title' => $props['title'],
    'alt'   => '' // Empty alt attribute
) );
$html .= '';

After (dynamic alt text):

// Example of 'after' code
global $product;
$product_title = $product->get_name(); // Get the product title

$html = '';
$html .= wp_get_attachment_image( $post_thumbnail_id, 'woocommerce_single', false, array(
    'title' => $product_title,
    'alt'   => $product_title // Populate alt with product title
) );
$html .= '';

4. Test the change on a staging environment, then deploy to production.

3️⃣ Bulk Update Existing Images (Direct DB Query)

Use case: “We have thousands of images already published with empty alt attributes; we need to back‑fill them.”

⚠️ HIGH RISK – This method modifies the database directly. Always:

• Take a full database backup.
• Run the query first on a staging copy.

Sample SQL (WooCommerce / WordPress)

-- Update all attachment posts that have an empty alt meta value
UPDATE wp_postmeta pm
JOIN wp_posts p ON pm.post_id = p.ID
SET pm.meta_value = (
    SELECT post_title
    FROM wp_posts AS prod
    WHERE prod.ID = (
        SELECT post_parent
        FROM wp_posts
        WHERE ID = pm.post_id
    )
)
WHERE pm.meta_key = '_wp_attachment_image_alt'
  AND (pm.meta_value IS NULL OR pm.meta_value = '');

Explanation:

• The query finds every media attachment (_wp_attachment_image_alt) with an empty alt.
• It then looks up the parent product’s post_title and writes that title into the alt meta field.

Caveats:

• If a product has multiple images, all will receive the same product title as alt.
• Some stores may prefer more descriptive alt text (e.g., “Red S T‑Shirt – Front View”). Adjust the logic accordingly.

Tools & Tips

• Browser Developer Tools – Use the Elements panel to locate the CSS classes that wrap product titles and images. Those selectors guide you when writing both the JavaScript patch and the PHP template edit.
• Version Control – Commit your child‑theme changes to Git (or another VCS) so you can roll back if needed.
• Testing – After any change, verify:
  1. The alt attribute appears in the raw HTML source (View → Page Source).
  2. Accessibility tools (e.g., axe, Lighthouse) no longer flag missing alt text.
  3. SEO audit tools (e.g., Screaming Frog, Sitebulb) report a healthy score.

TL;DR Recap

Pick the method that matches your urgency and comfort level. For most teams, the client‑side patch buys you time while you implement the permanent template fix. Use the SQL bulk update only after you’ve verified the template change works and you have a solid backup strategy.

The Fix!

=> $product_title // The fix!
) );
$html .= '';

Pro Tip: Use your browser’s developer tools to inspect the HTML around the image. The CSS classes (e.g., woocommerce-product-gallery__image) are huge clues that will help you grep for the right file on your server.

Sometimes the problem isn’t just in the theme. You might have thousands of images already in your media library with no alt text. The template fix only applies to newly rendered product pages. For everything else (like images embedded in blog posts), you may need to go straight to the source: the database.

⚠️ Warning: This is dangerous. Back up your database first. Seriously. Do it now. Test this on a staging server (e.g., staging-db-01) before even thinking about production.

How‑To

The following SQL query (for WordPress/WooCommerce) finds all image attachments that are assigned to a product (a post of type product) and updates their _wp_attachment_image_alt metadata field with the product’s title if the alt text is currently empty.

UPDATE wp_postmeta AS pm
JOIN wp_posts AS p_attachment   ON pm.post_id = p_attachment.ID
JOIN wp_posts AS p_product      ON p_attachment.post_parent = p_product.ID
SET pm.meta_value = p_product.post_title
WHERE pm.meta_key = '_wp_attachment_image_alt'
  AND (pm.meta_value IS NULL OR pm.meta_value = '')
  AND p_attachment.post_type = 'attachment'
  AND p_product.post_type = 'product';

This is a powerful, one‑time‑run query that can fix years of neglect in seconds. But with great power comes great responsibility—one wrong JOIN or WHERE clause and you could be scrambling to restore from that backup you (hopefully) made.

Choosing a Solution

In the end, we went with Solution 2 for that frantic marketing ticket. It was the only way to truly fix the problem for good. But you can bet I considered throwing that JavaScript snippet in there just to stop the alerts while I dug through the theme’s spaghetti code. Sometimes you need the band‑aid before you can perform the surgery.

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