Most businesses are looking for ways to drive potential clients to their websites by improving their SEO, one effective way to do this is to optimize images for eCommerce SEO.
A large number of people who shop online have claimed that images are one of the most important things that attract them to products online.
Optimizing your image for search engines will boost your traffic and increase your revenue. What is Image SEO and how can you optimize images for your online shopping site?
What is Image SEO?
Image SEO is the optimization of your website images to increase visibility and drive traffic on search engines.
It is important to carry out image SEO because search engines cannot directly interpret the content of images like they can with text, so online businesses can help search engines understand the content of their images by optimizing them.
Image SEO can be done through alt texts, using the right captions, page titles, file names, and the right image format. Optimizing your images makes them readable, and improves the quality and the overall user experience.
Optimizing Image File Names
The use of descriptive file names will also help customers who make use of assistive devices like screen readers gain access to your products.
Through the alternative text (Alt text) that describes images, the virtually impaired can comprehend the content and purpose of each image.
Additionally, utilizing relevant keywords will ensure that when potential customers search for specific products, they can easily find you.
Online users may come across your context across different online platforms such as social media, or image galleries, optimizing these images will enable them to understand the content and context before they click or interact with it.
The use of descriptive file names will provide search engines with valuable information about the image subject matter., this will increase the chances of your images appearing in relevant search results.
Image Size and Compression
It is important to note that image size and file size are two different things; while the image size refers to the dimensions of an image (e.g. 1024 pixels by 680 pixels), the file size refers to the storage space (e.g. 350 kilobytes).
Large images can significantly reduce the speed of web pages, this does not just frustrate users but negatively affects the SEO ranking of your web page. Search engines prioritize fast-loading websites to deliver a good user experience.
Optimizing your image size reduces the file size without compromising the quality of your image, this will in turn help your web page load faster and improve SEO performance.
You can make use of tools like Adobe Photoshop to optimize and compress your image while retaining its quality, another software tool that can provide similar services for a Mac is ImageOptim.
Mobile phone users may have restricted bandwidth or slower internet which makes it more important to resize images before adding them to your web page.
Mobile-friendly websites with little to no delay in loading pages tend to rank higher in mobile search results which will lead to improved SEO performance.
Furthermore, small images such as thumbnails or previews have little to no chance of ranking well in searches, it has been established that for images to rank high, at least one side of the image has to have a minimum of 300 pixels.
Enhancing Image Quality
Enhancing the quality of your photo makes your image visually appealing, and showcases your products in the best light; this provides a better user experience.
When users have a good experience with your website, they tend to stay longer, visit more often and make more purchases.
Positive user engagement such as staying longer on your site and lower bounce rates can indicate that your site is valuable and relevant which can lead to higher ranking on search engines.
User-Generated Images
Search engines most often consider user-generated images as a sign of quality and engagement.
When users upload these images and they receive engagement such as likes, shares, and comments, search engines will see your page as authoritative and lead to higher search rankings.
When reaching out to customers to drop reviews, ask them to share images of products they purchased, and let them know that you value their feedback.
Try to encourage customers to put up high-quality images that are clear, well-lit, and visually appealing. Clear pictures have a way of attracting visitors and search engines.
You can also organize giveaways or provide freebies to encourage users to share images of them using your products. Make incentives such as discounts, and freebies available to motivate them to participate.
According to Oberlo’s research carried out in 2023 on why people would rather shop online, 37.9% of online customers stated that the availability of discounts and coupons motivates them.
You can also create a hashtag and ask them to tag your brand and use it when posting any image of your product.
Images shared on social media platforms can increase brand visibility, linking back to the e-commerce website and boosting traffic on the site.
Captions and Image Context
Captions provide the opportunity for additional context and information about the product shown in the image.
They can highlight key features, specifications, benefits, or unique selling points of the product. Users can easily read through and understand the value each product offers without going through lengthy product descriptions by reading through the caption for each product.
Also, sometimes product images alone may not properly convey all the necessary information about the product, such as size, color variations, or extra accessories. Captions will help users make informed decisions and eradicate misunderstandings.
Captions can also include calls to action that will spur users to take specific actions such as placing an order or the product immediately. For instance, a call to action could be “Shop Now”, “Buy One Get One Free”, or “Limited Stock Available”.
Using calls to action will motivate potential customers to explore further by clicking in curiosity or making an immediate purchase.
Image Sitemaps
Image sitemaps are specialized sitemaps that provide information about images on your website to search engines. They are XML files that list the URLs of the images on your website together with other metadata like captions and titles.
Including image URLs in your image sitemaps will help search engines discover your site and index your images more effectively.
When your images are properly indexed and appear in image search results, it can drive extra organic traffic to your eCommerce website.
Some search engines offer image-specific search options like image carousels or rich snippets, including your image in an image sitemap will boost your chance of featuring in these enhanced image searches.
This can boost traffic and improve the rate at which people click on your site and give you an advantage over your competitors in image search results.
