Give product images descriptions customers can use

Start with what the customer needs to understand

A furniture shop might have hundreds of product photographs and little time to review their descriptions. An assistant can help prepare that work, but a generic description of everything visible is not always useful. Consider a hypothetical chair listing: the front photograph shows its shape, while a close-up shows an adjustment control. Those images have different jobs. Give the reviewer the actual page and image together, so the description addresses the information a customer needs at that point.

Classify the image before writing

W3C's image decision tree distinguishes informative, decorative and functional images. A meaningful photograph generally needs a brief description reflecting its context. An image that supplies the meaning of a link or button needs its action or destination communicated. Pure decoration can use an empty alt attribute. A complex diagram needs its information available elsewhere on the page. There is no useful rule that every image must receive a long description.

Guidance on image purpose and text alternatives. Catalogue workflow and chair examples are proposed practices, not client outcomes or a complete accessibility audit. W3C WAI: An alt Decision Tree

Keep product facts attached to the draft

For each proposed edit, record the page URL, image reference, existing description and suggested replacement. Provide approved product details alongside the image. If a material is not established, the assistant should not guess that a surface is leather or solid oak. Ask it to flag uncertainty for a person who knows the stock. An image-description workflow should not quietly become a source of new product claims about durability, safety or performance.

Use a small, varied review sample

Start with a handful of ordinary listings, a product gallery, a linked image and a decorative banner. Have someone familiar with the website check what each image contributes. For the hypothetical chair close-up, a draft could describe the location of an adjustment lever without inventing how it operates. Reject repetitive city names, sales slogans and unrelated keywords. They do not help someone understand the photograph. Keep a reason beside each approved or rejected draft so the next batch follows the same decisions.

Check the published page, not just the spreadsheet

Your editor may store image text separately from the place where that image appears. Preview the actual page after applying an approved change and check whether a reused photograph needs different treatment in another context. Include an accessibility review of the affected content, rather than assuming that filling a field proves the page works for everyone. Save the previous values and publish a small batch first, so an incorrect mapping can be corrected without repeating the entire catalogue update.

Measure whether the review process saves work

Compare the time needed to draft, check and publish descriptions with your current process. Track corrections for invented details and mismatched images, not just how many fields were filled. Include continuing review when photos or products change. Exovara can help organize the catalogue, prepare draft suggestions and maintain an approval process. Your team supplies the product knowledge and decides what appears publicly. Better image descriptions support a useful website; they are not a promise of higher search rankings.

Discuss an implementation

This guide applies across Canada. We provide remote AI consulting for businesses in Burnaby; it does not describe a local client or a staffed office.

AI consulting in Burnaby · Explore the service · Compare setup options