When it comes to advertising your products online, the best way to gain attention is by implementing different search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies. This will help your product and brand climb the search engine ranks, putting you a higher advantage to your competitors that have a similar/same product.
Our SEO Account Director, Sherin Malick, shares her key tips on how to put these top SEO methods into practice!
#1 The need for alt text
Alt text, also known as alternative text, is an element in SEO that describes images on a webpage. It is intended for accessibility purposes, as it provides a text-based description of an image , enabling individuals with visual impairments to understand the image’s content using screen-reading software. This increased accessibility will help understand the purpose and content of the image, creating a better user experience that promotes inclusivity and diversity.
Utilising alt text in images also has the added benefits of Google ranking your images more accurately, potentially leading to higher visibility and traffic, which leads us on to our next tip…
#2 Ensure image sizes are responsive and are in an optimal format
In combination with alt text, by optimising your image size, will increase the loading speed of the page. For example, if there is slow internet and the pictures do not display, alt text will still provide information that is describing the unloaded image for the user.
Reducing the file size of an image, without affecting the overall quality can increase the loading page if the screen as well, providing a smoother and quicker user experience.
It is worth mentioning that Google considers the loading speed of a page as a ranking factor, so the faster your image and page loads on the website, the higher it will rank. The quick loading response of the image will improve consistency across different devices, creating an equal user experience.
#3 Using an image site map and optimise file names, image titles and alt text
Believe it or not, but Google struggles to recognise images. To Google, images are just coloured pixels on a screen without meaning. By adding alt text or a relevant sentence attached to the image, Google can recognise what it is supposed to be.
Extra information, such a descriptive file name, image title and alt text can increase your image’s visibility especially if your website depends on visual content. Just make sure that the text contains keywords relevant to the page’s context.
#4 Ensure the page where the image is hosted has relevant surrounding content
It is important that the image you are sharing is relevant to the content because it will be a bit awkward if an irrelevant image does not match the context of the page, which will stick out like a sore thumb.
By inserting a relevant image this will help the reader understand the page’s context and provide a visual stimulus of the products they are looking to buy, making them more inclined to purchase.
Despite these tips, it is not guaranteed that you will rank #1 in the search engine or that your product will be the first image you see on Google Images, but by adopting these useful tricks, over time you may see your product move from page 2 to page 1 in Google.
However if you don’t have the patience to wait and see your product/website insights increase, you can contact the digital team here, where we can share with you more of our tips and strategies!