Today’s businesses attract customers in many different ways, from product bundling to social media engagement. A major factor in this is the images we use; the quality of an image can make or break a purchase. That’s why it’s essential that your images are as strong as possible.
What exactly does this idea look like in practice? By following these tips for your product images, you’ll be able to amplify conversions with ease.
Give People Information
If you deal with a lot of inbound calls, you’ll know the importance of anticipating customer queries. A good ecommerce site works to address this as comprehensively as possible. Sometimes this means adding detailed descriptions and attributes to a product page. In most cases, it also means having an array of useful images.
This idea manifests in a few different ways. If you offer a product in multiple colors or sizes, you’ll want to provide images for each of these. This can be laborious if you’re photographing the products yourself, but it makes a huge difference to your customers.
It’s also a good idea to offer multiple viewing angles for a product. You might want to consider a 360° turnaround for a product, or offer an HD video of it. This helps people get to grips with your product more easily.
It’s also a good idea to offer a zoom feature. This is an excellent way of helping people to appreciate the fine detail of what you sell. This feature is best supported by high-resolution images.
Avoid Misrepresentation
Besides providing plenty of images, you need to consider how those images appear to your customers. If you’re outsourcing product photography (like a BPO call center might) it’s important to have this conversation with your photographer.
A good strategy is to use the same background, lighting, and angle for each product. This is particularly important if you’re photographing, say, the same product in different color options.
As a rule, it’s a good idea to use unobtrusive backgrounds. Plain white is always a good option. This ensures the focus is entirely on the product you’re selling, where it belongs. For products with a predominantly white color scheme, go with a black background.
It might be tempting to add some kind of filter for an unobtrusive visual flair; however, this is usually a bad idea. Filters tend to distort the appearance of your products (particularly their color schemes) which gives shoppers an inaccurate idea. This can result in disappointed or angry customers, so strive for accuracy wherever you can.
If there’s confusion about intended use or target audience, it’s often a good idea to photograph your product in context. Photograph someone using your product as intended, and try to ensure they match your target demographic. If you’re selling a shirt aimed at older people, for example, get someone in that age range to model it.
Photographing products in context can help inspire your customers, and help them visualize how they would use them themselves. However, remember this ought to come alongside plain images rather than in place of them.
Consider Image Metadata
Today’s businesses make their websites search engine-friendly in many different ways. Images are a key part of this. By making your images SEO-compatible, you’ll increase the visibility of your site – and draw in more potential customers as a result.
Start by taking a look at each image’s metadata. This refers to the name of the image, its alt text, and any captions on the photo itself.
It’s likely your image name is a long string of numbers, or something similarly obtuse. Try relabelling the image so you include the actual name of the product in it. You’ll also probably need to amend the alt text of the images; this serves as a description of whatever’s in each image.
Having accurate alt text for images serves a few different purposes. It makes it easier for search engines to index them, which bolsters your SEO efforts. If for whatever reason the image doesn’t appear, the alt text tells viewers what the image is meant to be. Also, a customer is blind, their screen reader uses the alt text to describe what’s being displayed.
Captions aren’t essential – many product images work perfectly well without them. That said, if you feel they add some useful context to your customers, don’t be afraid to add them to images.
More generally, it’s a good idea to include your SEO keywords in image metadata where you can. This ensures that you serve the interests of both search engines and the customers using them.
Keep an Eye on Image Size
Another component of SEO is how quickly your website loads; a faster loading speed means a better search ranking. There are several ways to improve web page load speed, including reducing image size. If your images are too big, this can slow down site loading and turn away potential customers.
You can preserve fast loading times (without compromising image quality) in a few different ways. Ensure your images are in the JPG format; this image type enjoys wide support on ecommerce platforms. It also offers high image quality, while keeping file sizes relatively small.
Your average product image should be below 70KB. Some image editing software allows you to reduce an image’s file size without significantly affecting its quality. If you have a mobile site, you may want to consider using separate images for this version. These platforms can tolerate smaller images without adversely affecting the shopping process.
You may also be able to make some tweaks to how your website operates. Depending on the platform used to build it, there might be plugins that eliminate unnecessary tasks and speed up overall page loading. When paired with your other work on images, this can have a big impact on site visibility; experience in low code no code development can help you in this area.
Conclusion
Optimizing product images is a matter of anticipating what your customer wants. They want to (as far as possible) get a feel for your products, and understand exactly what they’re buying.
By offering plentiful, accurate images and maintaining site speeds, you’re well on your way to attracting the customers you need.
