Commercial photography and digital marketing go hand in hand; the technical operations of digital marketing are nothing without the creative imagery and visuals that lift the campaign into something spectacular. Think of it like making a great dessert. You could spend hours and hours perfecting the technical details of your baking to standards even Mary Berry would envy, you could also call it a Pear tarte tatin with Gorgonzola to sound fancy, but really, who cares unless it looks good in the first place? Sure, your Pear tarte tatin with Gorgonzola has the name, it has the taste, but have your efforts gone to waste?
Anyway enough about baking, the point is, your commercial photos are central to your digital marketing optimisation. Every e-commerce retailer knows that having high-quality product photos on their website is essential. Product photos are your digital shop window, they are what guide consumers’ purchase decisions.
But did you know that your commercial and product photos are so much more than just pictures?
Commercial photos can help you boost your website and product page’s SEO rankings, increase add-to-cart conversions and positive brand perceptions. And here’s how!
SEO file naming
Search Engine Optimisation is vital to any business who operates online. Over 68% of online experiences begin with a search, and 51% of consumers have discovered a new company or product through search engines. When you think of image optimisation, things like format, size and compression may spring to mind, but have you considered the opportunity to embed targeted keywords into your product photo file names?
Working towards your SEO goals is a never-ending process, however, it is crucial to cover all bases for the best optimisation and prepare your commercial photography correctly. We’ve created a step by step guide that tells you everything you need to know about optimising your product and commercial photos in a search-friendly way.
Naming your files for SEO
- What are your targeted keywords? Always include these
- Include basic descriptions as well as additional details
- Use hyphens between words
- Avoid abbreviations, use full words unless you find that users search the abbreviations.
For example, say you were selling this lipstick:
Unoptimised file name: IMG-01226-872×517
SEO optimised file name: Red-Lancome-Lipstick-Makeup-Cosmetic-Gift
Writing your image’s alt text, titles, and captions
Alt-text is actually designed for users with visual impairments and is intended to describe your photo. Alongside helping users with visual impairments, alt-text helps SEO. Your alt text should contain only essential description words. So avoid grammatical function words such as ‘and’, ‘with, or ‘if’.
Your product photo captions are also important for SEO and customer conversion. Research finds that captions get read more than body copy (4 times more!), so it’s important to get these right, when captions are needed of course. Include your targeted keywords and simple product photo descriptions here.
Converting Customers & Building Brand Image
Titles
Your image’s title is not necessarily vital to your SEO, it’s what appears alongside your image or when users hover over it. But the title is important for increasing conversions through a simple call to action (such as “buy now”), so once your search engine optimisation efforts have improved your site traffic, it’s good to then greet visitors with strong calls to action.
Editing professionally
When editing your images, we recommend keeping your photo edit styles consistent and straightforward. Perhaps create presets and apply these consistently amongst images to create a style that your audiences instantly recognise to build a more powerful brand image.
That being said, avoid over filtering your images! Over filtering is a sure way to damage your conversion rates, customers are unable to see the product in its quality, true-to-life form, which instantly averts any potential purchase decisions.
An easy tip to remember is to allow your customers to have an online shopping experience that is closest to an in store experience as possible. This involves optimising your images to reflect your products in-store life qualities with close-ups, large file sizes, simple editing and cropping to the correct proportions.
How Picture Perfect Photography can help you confidently improve SEO and convert customers
Picture Perfect Photography helps you fulfill all of these requirements without any of the hassle. Picture Perfect Photography has helped lots of online retail clients from a range of industries boost their SEO and online sales conversions, thanks to our attentive file naming and personalised commercial photography process.
We create commercial and product images that listen to your exact needs that boost your brand image and convert customers. In fact, it’s really simple, just follow these 3 simple steps:
1. Click Here to Schedule a Call for a quote.
2. Arrange your photo shoot.
3. Receive your commercial images & upload!
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to start selling your products online. You can get a quote today and find out just how easy it is for yourself!
