Low or mediumTrustMeasured

Placeholder text or images left on the store

Shoppers see a theme’s sample text, Shopify’s grey placeholder drawings or a policy blank such as “[INSERT RETURN ADDRESS]”, and the store looks unfinished.

Checked on: homepage, product pages, collection pages and the cart (with an item in it) · Zolvio’s check: “Placeholder text or images shown to shoppers”

Why it costs you sales

Placeholder content is what a theme or a policy template shows until you replace it: a sample sentence, Shopify’s grey drawing of a product or a scene, or a bracketed blank in a policy. Shoppers read it as a store nobody finished.

A blank left in your returns or shipping policy also leaves shoppers without the detail they went there for, such as the address to send a return to.

How Zolvio detects it

Zolvio reads the text a shopper can see on your homepage, collection pages, product pages and cart (with its own item in it), measured in a real browser (hidden text, text only screen readers get, and scripts don’t count; image and icon labels do), and looks for placeholder text: “Lorem ipsum”, and the sample texts Shopify’s Dawn theme and the themes built on it show in a section until it’s edited, such as “Example product title”, “Your collection’s name” or “Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product”. It also looks for Shopify’s placeholder drawings, the grey product, collection or scene a section shows when it was given no image, product or collection: ones a shopper can see, at least 40 by 40 pixels.

Once per audit it also reads your refund policy, shipping policy, privacy policy and terms of service as Shopify serves them, and looks for the blanks policy templates leave to fill in, such as “[INSERT RETURN ADDRESS]”, “[INSERT TRADING NAME]” or “[LINK TO REFUND POLICY]”; those are reported on the homepage. The finding lists each placeholder with its page and the words around it (up to ten of each kind).

A product with no photos shows a placeholder drawing in its own gallery: that’s reported as a product page without a product image, not here.

Members-only pages aren’t judged: a page without an add-to-cart form that shows a password or verification form in its content, such as a lock app’s (Easy Lockdown, Locksmith) or a VIP sign-in in the theme. A sign-in box in the header, the footer, a pop-up or a drawer doesn’t count, since it’s on every page. Neither is a product page used for a consultation or a quote: one without an add-to-cart form whose main content asks the shopper to request a quote, talk to a specialist or book a consultation. An ask your buyable product pages show too, such as a banner on every page, doesn’t count.

Severity. Medium when shoppers meet the placeholder on your pages or in your refund or shipping policy; low when the only blanks are in your privacy policy or terms of service.

This is a direct measurement, so it’s reported on every plan, including Free and audits with AI turned off. With AI review on, the AI agent also checks it against the audit’s evidence before it reaches your issue list.

AI screenshot review also looks for this problem (“Placeholder pictures or template text left in”) in desktop and mobile screenshots. When both find it, you get one issue.

How to fix it

  1. Open the page the finding names in the theme editor (Online Store → Themes → Customize) and select the section that shows the placeholder.
  2. Choose its image, product or collection, write your own text, or remove the block or section if you don’t need it.
  3. For a policy blank, go to Settings → Policies, open the policy the finding names and replace each bracketed blank with your own details.
  4. Reload the page or the policy and check the placeholder is gone.

This is usually a change in the theme editor or Settings → Policies, not to theme code.

In Zolvio: on paid plans with AI turned on, the guided fix writes these steps for your own store and theme: where to click in Shopify admin or the theme editor, or which file to open, the line to find and the code to add. Each file opens in Shopify’s code editor. Zolvio never edits your theme: you make the change, then Verify fix checks your published theme for code changes (or you mark it fixed), and later audits confirm the problem is gone.

Common questions

Why does “Placeholder text or images left on the store” cost a Shopify store sales?

Placeholder content is what a theme or a policy template shows until you replace it: a sample sentence, Shopify’s grey drawing of a product or a scene, or a bracketed blank in a policy. Shoppers read it as a store nobody finished. A blank left in your returns or shipping policy also leaves shoppers without the detail they went there for, such as the address to send a return to.

How does Zolvio detect “Placeholder text or images left on the store”?

Zolvio reads the text a shopper can see on your homepage, collection pages, product pages and cart (with its own item in it), measured in a real browser (hidden text, text only screen readers get, and scripts don’t count; image and icon labels do), and looks for placeholder text: “Lorem ipsum”, and the sample texts Shopify’s Dawn theme and the themes built on it show in a section until it’s edited, such as “Example product title”, “Your collection’s name” or “Pair text with an image to focus on your chosen product”. It also looks for Shopify’s placeholder drawings, the grey product, collection or scene a section shows when it was given no image, product or collection: ones a shopper can see, at least 40 by 40 pixels. Once per audit it also reads your refund policy, shipping policy, privacy policy and terms of service as Shopify serves them, and looks for the blanks policy templates leave to fill in, such as “[INSERT RETURN ADDRESS]”, “[INSERT TRADING NAME]” or “[LINK TO REFUND POLICY]”; those are reported on the homepage. The finding lists each placeholder with its page and the words around it (up to ten of each kind). A product with no photos shows a placeholder drawing in its own gallery: that’s reported as a product page without a product image, not here. Members-only pages aren’t judged: a page without an add-to-cart form that shows a password or verification form in its content, such as a lock app’s (Easy Lockdown, Locksmith) or a VIP sign-in in the theme. A sign-in box in the header, the footer, a pop-up or a drawer doesn’t count, since it’s on every page. Neither is a product page used for a consultation or a quote: one without an add-to-cart form whose main content asks the shopper to request a quote, talk to a specialist or book a consultation. An ask your buyable product pages show too, such as a banner on every page, doesn’t count.

How do I fix “Placeholder text or images left on the store” on Shopify?

Open the page the finding names in the theme editor (Online Store → Themes → Customize) and select the section that shows the placeholder. Choose its image, product or collection, write your own text, or remove the block or section if you don’t need it. For a policy blank, go to Settings → Policies, open the policy the finding names and replace each bracketed blank with your own details. Reload the page or the policy and check the placeholder is gone.

Related

Documentation

  • How audits work — What an audit scans and how findings become issues.
  • Guided fixes — Step-by-step fixes written for your theme, with links into the code editor.
  • Surveys — Ask shoppers what’s holding them back.