5 E-commerce Image Optimization Tips You Need to Know
Images have more bytes than any other part of your website so it’s important to optimize them to improve your website performance and SERP rankings. And web performance has a direct impact on your customer retention and conversions.
In this article, learn five e-commerce image optimization tips you need to know for better conversions, SEO rankings, customer retention and more.
E-commerce Image Optimization Tips
1. Understand different file types
It’s all about minimizing load time for your customers, so you need to know which file types will work best for the images on your website.
There are three main image file types:
JPEG is an image file type that is adjustable and best used for product images, photography, and images with multiple colors.
GIF is a compressed version of photographs or videos and used for animation, small images (thumbnails or icons) and images with few colors.
PNG images have bigger and better quality and only used when quality is more important than file size.
If you own an e-commerce website, you should always use JPEGs for product photos as it provides a good balance between file size and quality.
2. Get the image file size right to increase conversions
It’s crucial to get the right file size as it greatly affects your website performance. Every single image must download each time someone visits your website.
It is a best practice to keep your image at 1 to 2 MB in size. The smaller your image size, the faster your page speeds, which means a lower bounce rate and more satisfied customers.
Experiment with different sizes to find the file size for the quality of speed you require. Choose the smallest file size that still looks nice. Once you find the right size-to-quality combination, apply it to similar images on your e-commerce site.
3. Name your image files properly
The name you put on your images can affect your SEO results.
Name your image in a descriptive, accurate and straightforward manner so that search bots can properly tag your images on SERP.
4. Use alt tags to make your site accessible to all
Alt tags are the descriptions you give to an image that is written into the code of your website.
Alt tags help visually-impaired people using screen readers know what the image is and informs the browser what the image is when page loading issues occur. They also help SEO crawlers read them which improves your SEO.
Make sure your alt tags are simple, descriptive, and to-the-point, just like your file name.
5. Perform A/B testing to improve conversion and retention
Performing A/B testing is another e-commerce image optimization technique you should employ to make sure you choose the right images on your website:
Here are some techniques for testing images:
• Quantity: Perform tests between many and a few images per product, per category, per page, etc. Doing this will allow you to identify what’s best for your customers.
• File size vs. quality: You can test if slower-loading but higher quality affects conversions for your site. For example, if you have a more expensive product, your customers may be happy to wait for a higher-quality image to load. That way they can zoom in and out and see every nuance and detail of it before buying.
• Test to know which images your customers like: Your customers may prefer to see both the top and side of your offer. Or maybe they convert more often when they’ve got fewer angles to study. You’ll never know until you test.
E-commerce image optimization might’ve been the last thing on your mind when optimizing your website. However, doing a few simple updates not only can improve your rankings, but also improve user experience.
If you’re interested in improving your e-commerce website’s performance online, contact us today!