MEASURED, NOT SURVEYED
How many Shopify stores are missing image alt text?
94% of the stores we measured have at least one homepage image with no alt text. Across 22,772 images, 34% carried none.
Alt text is what a screen reader announces and what an image search has to go on. It is also the most common single finding in this entire dataset.
The readings
| Measure | Figure | Measured over |
|---|---|---|
| Stores with at least one image missing alt text | 94% | 194 stores |
| Homepage images with no alt text | 34% | 7,732 of 22,772 images |
How this was measured
Every figure is read from each store's own public pages, the same way a shopper's browser would — no store login, no app installed, nothing a visitor could not see. Where a reading failed, that store is left out of the affected row rather than counted as a zero, which is why the samples differ between rows. These are single readings taken at one moment, not averages over time. Figures are generated from the measurements each time this page is served, so they move as more stores are scored, and nothing here is typed in by hand.
The sample is mostly established direct-to-consumer brands, so it is a demanding comparison rather than a cross-section of Shopify, and it is not a claim about Shopify stores in general. See the full method and every figure across all 198 stores.
Where does your own store sit?
The same reading, run on your store, free. It tells you which of these you have, ranks them by what each one costs you, and shows your score against these same 198 stores. No sign-up and no store login.