A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

How many times have you used, or heard, that classic English adage? In the world of digital marketing, it’s more relevant than ever. Online retailers are in a shouting match, with each website trying to out-do the next for the attention of the shopper. The ultimate goal for any online store is to outrank the competitors on the search result page. At the same time, stores are adding interactivity and extra functions to marketing materials. The focus is on images looking flashy and bright, in the hopes of enticing to entice users to buy on their site.

All of them vying for the top spot on Google’s search results page. This is escalating, with these stores looking to add interactivity and extra functions to their marketing banners.  

This shouting match is escalating, especially from an SEO perspective, with these sites all competing to improve the overall user experience and build brand awareness through the use of various images.

Sites want images that emphasize colour, new product lines and communicate what the brand stands for. The problem comes in when ineffective images are used. This is typically the root cause of a wide range of technical problems, from slow website speeds, to missing out on potential keyword opportunities. This is also where most websites lose out on optimised performance in Google’s rankings.

Reaching out and assigning contextual relevance of images to search engine crawlers is a way in which eCommerce sites can optimise their relevant product pages… This is a complex process to understand, however, there are a few key factors that all SEOs should consider when optimising images for Google Search.

These factors include the quality of the image on the site, the page authority that the image is loaded onto, the alternative text assigned to the image, the size of the image, and the number of product images on a webpage. Other details to keep in mind are the formats of the image files, the existence of an optimised image sitemap, and the number of backlinks the image has generated.

The successful optimisation of images has clear advantages that lead to increased technical performance of the site. As we know, this results in an improved overall user experience, and the ultimate increasing the site’s visibility and relevance.   

Ultimately the use of clear, concise and consistent images will also improve the tone of voice of a site and allow your site to stand out from the crowd of competitors and build better recognition. The result? Increased sales, brand loyalty and the chance to stand out from the digital masses.

Michael Slabbert – SEO Specialist