Images are what carry your business. It helps viewers and customers build trust in your business as well as attract them. The better your images are presented and formatted, the better your website functions.
Well-optimized photos reduce loading time, thereby avoiding stress among customers and viewers. By lessening the number of times customers have to wait for your images to appear, you bring up the sales by a huge deal. Who wants to wait forever just to see the products, when you can easily view them at the local store?
Image optimization has many advantages especially for websites that depend a lot on images to present products. To go into further detail, here are the many ways how image optimization can influence conversions.
It Reduces loading Time
Kissmetrics states that “79% of online shoppers” who experience difficulties with website function say they will never buy anything from the site. This huge figure is the reality that all online businesses have to face. eCommerce that doesn’t do well with conversion suffers from both users and search engines, as users can leave bad reviews and feedback and you lose more prospects this way, and search engines don’t prioritize your store by placing you at the bottom of the results or even several pages back.
The long loading time may be due to the images that you use. Images eat up a lot of space, this is why online stores have the most issues because they’re 70% images and 30% content. Reducing the quality too much can result in some trust issues with your business, as buyers want to see the best images of the product before they commit to buying.
It also helps to know the different image formats, namely: Portable Network Graphics (PNG), Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or JPG)
- JPEGs are often the format of choice as they mix red, green, and blue lights, whereas other formats don’t display a lot of colors. This makes them display a lot of colors. JPEGs also allow file size adjustment, the higher the quality, the bigger the size. This image format is best for displaying any or all of your product images, especially if you have colorful images.
- PNGs are much larger in size and newer than JPEGs. Being bigger in size means the quality is better.
There are two types of PNGs, namely PNG-8 and PNG-24. PNG is a smaller file that has a similar amount of colors that GIFs have, which is 256 colors. PNG-24 is larger and allows millions of colors in its files, making them the best image format for high-quality photos
- GIFs are compressed, looping variants of pictures or videos, that only allow for 256 colors to be displayed in an image. GIFs may not be the best for displaying images with lots of variations for colors, but they’re great for showing an animation without burdening your website as videos and HQ images do.GIFs are best used for small animations and images, and logos that only show a few colors.
So all in all, PNGs should be used for simple images because of their size, JPEGs should be used for almost anything especially colorful ones, and GIFs are to be used for small animations. Always remember that quality is more important than size in a file when it comes to images.
One more important thing is that you have to be aware of the size of your images before you upload them on your website. You don’t want to put in an image that’s too big for your website’s size, this drags loading time. Always optimize your photos and practice eCommerce photo editing.
It Improves SEO
Images are very important in making sure your content is attractive, alluring, and most importantly, available upon searching. Images offer contingent information for search engines, giving prospects the idea that you have what they’re looking for. Image optimization allows your business to thrive if you understand its basics, which is basically making high-quality photos, knowing the best format and size for your website and your viewers, as well as labeling your images with the proper names.
The following tips will help you optimize your images for SEO:
- Name your images well. Not everyone knows this, but naming your images with the appropriate names actually affects the searchability of your business. It’s important for the name to describe the image. Marketers who don’t change the names of their images from the random code run the risk of having their images unrecognized by search engines.
- Add alt tags. Another way you can do to optimize your images is to add Alt Tags. Alt Tags are technically “Alternative Texts” or “Alternative Attributes”, only incorrectly called alt tags. These are descriptions in the HTML code of your website for your images’ functions and appearance.
The great thing about alt tags is that it assists the visually impaired who are using screen readers to identify images. It also helps browsers and visitors identify if the missing space is an image or not if it doesn’t load quickly or at all. Lastly, it helps SEO crawlers as they can read them better, so as to improve your SEOs. Make sure your Alt Tabs are simple, definitive, and concise.
Visually impaired people using screen readers know what the image is because of an alt attribute. When they hold their cursor over the image, the screen reader can literally read the alt attribute description to them.
It’s a bit of code that informs the browser what supposedly is there should an image not load properly. This bit is useful if your page is having issues loading.
SEO crawlers identify them, this, in turn, helps better your SEO. The main goal with alt attributes is to make sure they are definitive, simple, and to the point. Much like the file name.
- Use sitemaps. The use of sitemaps is also highly recommended. Sitemaps are files that inform search engines of your website by listing the pages of your site. Through images, you can improve your website’s discoverability. By using images that are popular, you bring more people in. You can use infographics and videos for viewers who want to learn more, you can also use memes for a quick laugh as well as capture attention. Sitemaps for images should include a title, description, caption, and a license. For videos, it should have a play page URL for location, a thumbnail URL, and a raw video file or video player URL.
- Optimize image thumbnails. Just like any of the images on your website, you also have to optimize thumbnails. They don’t need to be big files, you can use JPEGS and GIF formats for thumbnails. You can also modify them digitally to reduce image and file size. You must also name them and give them alt tags so as to help with description and visibility.
Capture both the technical and aesthetic aspects of images
Images are there to serve a purpose on your website, they’re there to raise conversion rates and make your website discoverable. However, some images are supposed to be beautiful. This leads to the division of images: the technical and aesthetic. eCommerce product photos are those images that you want to focus on image type, size, and resolution.
JPEGs are best used for technical images. Aesthetic photos are those images that prioritize the colors of the background, product styling, and many more.
A/B or “split” testing is one way to determine which images are doing well for your website. You can use this test to determine if the number of images on your website is enough or less. You can also use this test to see if file size and quality affect the loading time of your websites, therefore, your conversions. High-quality images are used by online shoppers to view the details of each product.
Lastly, you can also find out which of the photos your customers or viewers like. This allows you to focus on the kinds of photos you put on your website like eCommerce product photos, without crowding it with all the details of your products.
It is important to bear in mind that when running the A/B test is to run a test for one variable at a time. Running 2 variables will yield confusing results as you will not know which result is for which variable.
Your Turn…
As we know by now, Image Optimization can really bring up conversion rates. Images are the first thing we encounter as infants. From our parent’s faces to our first books, images are deeply embedded into our system that anything without images simply cannot be. Our minds even create images for literature that doesn’t have images.
Knowing how to optimize your images can not only help your conversion but also help you make your website the best version of itself. Transparent background maker tools will really help optimize your site. A free photo editing and background remover tool is just what you need to get the best images for your eCommerce site. By making sure you have the right photos and their types and after split testing everything, you’re reducing lag and ensuring quality among your images.