The Role of Images in Online Shopping
According to Google, 50% of online shoppers recognize the significant impact that product email list images have on their purchasing decisions . This data shows how essential it is to present high-quality and engaging images to attract users' attention and positively influence their choices.
Images as a relevance signal for Google
Images are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also play a vital role as a relevancy signal for Google. In fact, using them strategically offers immediate support to the user experience, enriches on-page content and improves visibility on search engines.
Google's Practical Tips for Image Optimization
Google's main suggestion is to focus on the user to improve the visibility of images. This includes integrating images in a relevant way, optimizing image placement, avoiding embedded text, creating high-quality content, and ensuring compatibility with different device sizes. Following these principles not only optimizes the visibility of images in search engines, but also improves the overall user experience on the site.
What does it mean to optimize images?
Large images can slow down your website pages, compromising your user experience. Image optimization is the process of reducing file size through plugins or scripts, thereby speeding up page load time. There are two main types of compression : Lossy and Lossless .
Lossy: Reduces image quality by discarding some of the data. It is important to balance size reduction without compromising quality too much;
Lossless: Compresses data without loss of quality, requiring decompression before viewing.
Key elements to check for image optimization
1. Page Title and Snippet
Google emphasizes that image CTR is influenced by the information provided . The search engine automatically generates titles and snippets for each result to improve relevance to user queries. However, other sources are also used, including descriptive information in the titles and meta tags of each page.
2. Structured Data and Markup
Using structured data, such as product, video, and recipe markup, can significantly improve the visibility of images as rich results. In fact, Google can present images as rich results with prominent badges , providing users with relevant information and driving targeted traffic. In this context, the image attribute becomes essential to activate badges and rich results on Google Images.
3. Weight reduction and speed improvement
Using high-quality images is important to attract users and improve traffic. However, avoiding heavy resources is essential to maintain website speed , especially on mobile devices. Google recommends the application of optimization techniques and responsive images to ensure a fast and high-quality user experience.
4. Texts accompanying the images
Optimization is not just about the images themselves, but also the related texts such as titles, captions, file names, and descriptive texts. Google scans the page to extract information about the subject of the images, considering every detail.
5. Alt text optimization
Alt text , or alternative text, is the textual description of an image, plays an essential role in accessibility , especially for users with visual impairments or low-bandwidth connections. Google uses alt text in conjunction with computer vision algorithms to understand the subject of the image and suggests also considering it as anchor text if the image is used as a link. This practice helps improve the user experience and the overall accessibility of the site.
