Catalog & data

Shopping-context alt text

Definition

Alt text written to answer a shopper's implicit question about that specific image — what product, which attribute, what context — rather than to maximize keyword density for search ranking.

Defined in Image Metadata & Alt Text at Catalog Scale.

Related terms

Structured attribute: A named, machine-readable field with a discrete value — material: leather, sleeve_length: short — as opposed to the same fact buried in a marketing sentence.
Shopify metafield: A custom structured field on a Shopify product, collection, or variant — the mechanism most mid-market merchants use to add attributes without a separate PIM.
Category attribute template: A fixed, reusable list of the attribute fields every SKU in a given category must carry — e.g. every hiking boot gets material, closure, waterproof rating, sole type, weight — built once per category and then applied to every SKU in it.
Product taxonomy: The hierarchical category structure a catalog is organized under, which agents use to scope what "kind" of product they're reasoning about before checking specific attributes.
Backend attribute: Amazon search terms and fields that aren't shown on the listing but still feed indexing and, increasingly, Rufus's ability to answer questions about the product.
Compatibility data: Structured "works with" or "fits" relationships between products, which agents rely on heavily because shoppers frequently ask compatibility questions by exact model or part.

All 112 terms

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