Research shows that if an online business site loads slower than expected, visitors are less likely to make a purchase. The sole culprits of a slow website are large, under-optimized images. While the image quality is important for creating great product photography, image optimization is key to reducing site load times, enhancing your brand, attracting shoppers, and building a successful business. Continue reading to know some vital product image optimization tips for your online business.

Use Concise and Direct Product Image Names

It’s easy to keep the default file names your camera assigns when uploading product image. However, when it comes to image optimization, use relevant keywords to help your webpage rank on search engines. Creating descriptive, keyword-rich file names is important for image optimization.

Optimize Your Alt Attributes

Alt attributes are the text alternative to images when a browser can’t render them properly. They’re used for web accessibility. Even when the image is rendered, if you hover over it, you’ll see the alt attribute text. The alt attribute adds SEO value to your website. Adding appropriate alt attributes that include relevant keywords to the product image on your website will help you rank better in the search engines.

Choose Your Product Image Dimensions And Angles Wisely

Show multiple angles of your product. However, be careful when dealing with large images. Don’t place the largest image on your webpage. You can easily shrink the dimensions via the source code. This will increase your page load time. Instead, use a smaller image on that page and offer visitors the option to view a larger one in a pop-up or on a separate page.

Resize Your Product Images

50% of consumers won’t wait three seconds for a dropshipping site to load. When a customer arrives on your site, it takes a while to load everything, depending on how large your files are. The larger your file sizes are, the longer it takes your webpage to load. If you can decrease the size of the product image files on your webpage and increase page load speed, fewer people who visit your site will click away.

Choose The Right Image Format

There’re three common file types used to post images to the web: JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Mostly, JPEGs are the best image format. They provide the best image quality for the smallest file size. Never use GIFs for large product image. The file size will be too large and there is no good way to reduce it. Use GIFs for thumbnails and decorative images only.

Optimize Your Thumbnails

Many websites will use thumbnail images, especially on category pages. They quickly showcase products. Thumbnails are great, but if you aren’t careful, they’ll increase your page load speeds. Thumbnails are usually presented at vital points during the shopping process. If they’re preventing your category pages from loading quickly, you could lose a potential customer. So, ensure to make your thumbnail file sizes as small as possible.

Ensure Images Are Mobile-Friendly

If you’ve used the correct file type and compressed your images, they should be pretty mobile-friendly. However, sometimes things don’t always display the way we expect. More than half of all internet traffic comes from a mobile device, so you want to ensure product image don’t mess up the mobile experience. For that reason, I recommend viewing your site from several different mobile devices like tablets, iPhones, and Android devices to ensure images look their best.

Use Image Sitemaps

If your site uses Javascript galleries, and image pop-ups to improve the overall shopping experience. Image sitemaps will get your images noticed by Google, which may help your website rank higher on SERPs. Additionally, you can use sitemaps to give Google more information about the images on your site, which can help Google find more of your images.

Beware Of Decorative Images

Anything non-product related can probably be considered a decorative product image. Although they add a lot of aesthetic appeal to a webpage, they can result in large combined file sizes and slow load times. Therefore, make these images PNG-8 or GIFs. You can create beautiful images that are only a few hundred bytes in size.

Test Your Images

Test the number of product images you have per page.  Test what angles your customers prefer.  And test how many product listings you should have on category pages. All these will help you to optimize your product image well and figure out what brings more customers.

Endnote

There you go with some product image optimization tips for your online business. While product image optimization might feel like another step in a never-ending quest to improve SEO, it can have a huge impact on your business. The ultimate goal of optimizing your images is to increase your bottom line. Before uploading any image on your website, keep these tips at the back of your mind and you’ll see your business get noticed by potential customers.

Do You Need Experts To Help With Your Product Photography?

At Fulfillman, we specialize in providing excellent Product Photography. We are experts in Hero Shots, Ghost Mannequin Photography, and Jewelry Product Photography. Our services are well-detailed and highly professional. We offer the best quality photos that highlights your product in a way that will get your customers to pay attention. Contact us today at Fulfillman to know more about our services. We guarantee you get quality and excellent services that gives 100% client satisfaction.