Bulk Translate Alt Text: New Time-Saving Features for Image Translate

TL;DR: Managing alt text across hundreds of products and multiple languages used to take hours. Now it takes minutes.
We’ve added two powerful features to Image Translate Easy: bulk AI translation of alt text and one-click copy between languages. Here’s how they save you serious time.

• Bulk Translate: Translate all your product alt text to any language with AI – no manual work required.
• Copy Between Languages: Instantly copy alt text from one locale to another – perfect for same-language markets.
• Smart Options: Skip existing translations, use custom templates, add brand keywords automatically.

If you’ve been manually translating alt text for each product image, you know the pain. With 50 products, 5 images each, and 4 languages – that’s 1,000 translations. Our new bulk features turn this from a week-long project into a coffee-break task.

Bulk AI Translation: Translate All Alt Text in One Click

The bulk translate feature uses AI to translate your product image alt text to any language Shopify supports. Select your products, choose your target languages, and let the app do the rest.

Here’s what makes it powerful:

• Multiple languages at once: Translate to German, French, Spanish, and Dutch in a single batch.
• Use existing alt text: If your images already have English alt text, the AI translates that. No alt text? It generates from your product title.
• Skip existing translations: Already translated some products manually? The app skips those and only fills in the gaps.
• Custom templates: Use patterns like “{product_title}” to generate consistent alt text across your catalog.
• Brand keywords: Automatically add your brand name as a prefix or suffix to every translation.

This is exactly what’s missing when you use Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app – it doesn’t touch your image alt text at all.

Copy Alt Text Between Languages

Sometimes you don’t need translation – you need duplication. The copy feature lets you instantly copy all alt text from one language to another.

This is perfect for:

• Same-language markets: German (de) to Austrian German (de-AT) or Swiss German (de-CH).
• English variants: US English to UK English, Australian English, or Canadian English.
• Portuguese variants: Brazilian Portuguese to European Portuguese (or vice versa).
• Spanish variants: Spain Spanish to Latin American Spanish markets.

Why re-translate when the text is already perfect? Just copy it over in seconds.

How It Works

Both features are available from the product detail page and from your saved product selections:

1. Select your products – choose individual products or use a saved selection.
2. Choose your action – Bulk Translate or Copy to Another Language.
3. Configure options – pick target languages, set preferences.
4. Start the job – watch the progress bar as translations are applied.

The app processes everything in the background, so you can keep working. Large catalogs with hundreds of products? No problem – the job keeps running even if you close the page.

Real-World Example: Expanding to 5 European Markets

Let’s say you’re a US-based store expanding to Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. Here’s your workflow:

Total time: under 5 minutes for your entire catalog. Try doing that manually.

Why Alt Text Matters for International SEO

We’ve written extensively about how translated alt text improves your international SEO. The short version: Google Images drives 20-30% of e-commerce traffic, and your alt text is what makes your products discoverable.

Untranslated alt text means invisible products. A German customer searching for “blaue Laufschuhe” won’t find your “blue running shoes” – unless you’ve translated the alt text.

These bulk features make it practical to actually do this at scale. No excuses anymore.

Available Now

Both features are live in Image Translate Easy. If you’re already using the app, you’ll find them in the product detail page under the “Bulk Actions” dropdown.

New to image translation? Learn how to show different product images for different languages in our complete guide.

Try Image Translate Easy on the Shopify App Store →