Optimizing Images for E-Commerce SEO

Pictures are worth a thousand words… and a lot of SEO points.

How’s Your Image SEO Strategy?

For e-commerce websites, pictures are important sales tools. This is your way of showing the features (the “look and feel”) of your products. However, images can also work to improve the level of traffic in your websites. People do use search engines to look for pictures and making your images search engine friendly can give your SEO rankings an extra boost.

Here’s how you can optimize your images for SEO:

• Use keywords to name your product. It will simplify matters if you can just use the product SKU as the product name. However, you need to remember that when people are looking for a photo of something, they will use keywords. Name your files using “plain English” keywords rather than codes. Aim to strike a balance between getting unique keywords in the image file name without being guilty of “keyword overstuffing”.
• Make use of the image’s Alt Text. We can readily see what the image is all about – but the search engines can’t. Alt text provides the text that search engines can use to identify what the picture is about. In addition, alt text provides those with visual impairments with a description of the image.
• Use the right file format. JPEG, GIF and PNG are three of the most common image file formats used. JPEG provides smaller file sizes but has lossy data compression. This means that different settings can result in some loss in image quality. GIF is ideal for animations but not for photographs. PNG provides an excellent color range and supports transparency. The drawback is that PNG file sizes are larger.
• Optimize image size. The size of the image should provide excellent rendering on screen but also be small enough so that it will load faster. Remember, the slower it takes to load a page, the higher the possibility that the reader will leave it and move on. You can also use smaller images in the page and give customers the option of clicking the picture for a larger pop-up image.
• Index your images with an image sitemap. This enables search engines to crawl your website better and to find these images, even when these are presented as slider galleries using JavaScript code.
• Add social media buttons. Create social media links to improve SEO standing by adding “Share” or “Pin It” buttons to the images. The reader can then include the image in their social media feed – and this will radically increase your photo’s reach as his social media friends get the chance to take a look at your image.
• Get rid of the frills. What are the decorative extras that your website page should do without? This includes anything that does not help to sell the product or reinforce your company image. Background images, borders and other “non-productive” images will only slow loading times.

About Adaptivity Pro

A strategic approach to your e-commerce website is just one small part of the picture. You may need to have an experienced and expert team that can address the wide range of requirements that you have to get your e-commerce up, running and thriving. For your Utah website design and e-commerce needs, we offer a crack team of programmers and graphic designers. Aside from this, Adaptivity Pro also performs Utah Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Marketing and Social Media Management services.