Alt text for holiday gift guides: describing a product grid

A gift guide graphic is a grid: twelve products, a headline, maybe a price banner. You do not need twelve separate descriptions for it. Describe the graphic’s purpose in a sentence, name the items only if the post’s text does not, and put the details where everyone can read them.

That is the short answer for alt text on a collage-style gift guide. The rest of this post covers the three situations you will actually meet in November and what to write in each.

One graphic, many products

When the grid is a single image posted to social or dropped into a newsletter, the W3C’s guidance on groups of images separates two cases. Images that together convey one piece of information need one description of the whole group. Images that form a related collection each need their own description, along with their place in the group.

A gift guide graphic is usually the first case. The point is “here are gift ideas under a theme,” not a specimen of each mug. Lead with that, then add the few items a reader would otherwise miss.

The strong version names what the viewer takes away and trims the rest. Anything you cannot fit, such as the other six items, belongs in the post text, a caption, or the page the graphic links to.

When the products are already listed in text

Many guides pair each photo with a name, a price, and a link. In that case the words are already there, and WebAIM’s alt text guidance says alt text should not repeat information found in nearby text. If a photo’s name and price sit right beside it, a short description of what it looks like, or an empty alt, is often enough.

Linked product photos are the exception. WebAIM notes that when an image is the only content in a link, its alt text must say where the link goes as well as what the image shows. A bare thumbnail linking to a product page should read like the link: “Wool socks, set of three.”

Skip the styling props, the ribbon color, and the studio lighting unless they are the point. Our post on alt text for product photos covers what to keep, and decorative versus informative images helps you decide which snowflakes and sparkles to leave blank.

Swipeable guides and last-minute edits

If the guide is a carousel with one gift per slide, write one short description per slide and keep them parallel, as in our notes on carousels. Start each with the product, then one distinguishing detail. The W3C’s image tips also suggest putting the most important information first, which suits a listener moving quickly through twelve items.

Gift guides are rushed by nature, so the safest habit is to write the descriptions while you build the graphic, not after it is scheduled. The same planning logic applies to Black Friday campaigns, and the foundation for all of it is in why alt text matters.

If you are working through a long list of products, SnipAlt can draft the description from your screen: snip the graphic with Ctrl+Shift+A (⌘⇧A on a Mac), then edit the result so it names the theme and the items that matter most.