Image SEO for Online Retailers
Image SEO for Online Retailers
Don’t miss the SEO opportunities hidden in your online catalog images.
The way images![]()
appear on websites and the information included with those images play important parts in search engine optimization. Without proper image optimization, your online retail store is missing an opportunity to pull in more traffic and enjoy higher search engine rankings. If have an online store, the following image optimization tips will help you beat out your competition in the search engine rankings:
Choose the Correct Image File Types
File type and size play important roles in e-commerce web optimization. JPEG and GIF images are considerably smaller than popular PNG images, but the quality of GIF images is poor. The answer is to choose JPEG instead. Major retailers such as Amazon use JPEG images to increase the speed of the website's load time without compromising image quality. This keeps visitors from clicking away because it takes too long for your page to load. It also helps because Google encourages faster page loads by penalizing sites that load too slowly in the search algorithm.
Going back through your website’s image catalog to convert to JPEG is no easy task. While there are website tools to help you minimize file sizes, converting all your images from one format to another is a monumental task. Instead, begin changing to a JPEG format as you add products to your catalog.
Don't Overload Your Pages with Thumbnails
Thumbnail images are essential to the success of every online retail store. They allow customers to glance at products without navigating to individual product pages for every item of interest. Too many thumbnail images, however, will slow down your load times.
Make sure you have just enough thumbnail images to keep your customers happy. For most retailers, the default number of thumbnail images in a product search is around 25, then giving consumers options to see more items per page if they like. This is an ideal balance, letting customers to get a quick response to product searches without limiting their options or slowing page load.
Use Alt Tags Wisely
Many retailer websites place all their energy in creating the perfect product descriptions, keeping them short, to the point and rich with important keywords. But the words customers don’t see are just as important. Those invisible words are in the Alt tags of your images.
Alt tags were designed to offer descriptions of images. Because they can help the impaired by describing what is on the screen, Google values Alt tags that are relevant and useful. Sites that use them well are rewarded with better search engine rankings. Keep your Alt descriptions short and descriptive, using only one keyword. Google looks down on sites that abuse Alt tags for SEO value.
Let efelle help perfect your retail website’s SEO.
Our SEO experts have helped hundreds of firms improve their search engine rankings through our deep understanding of what SEO strategies work best. Call us at 206.384.4909 or use our online contact form for a free consultation.
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