Why Visual Content is Essential to Your SEO Strategy

Product Photography: Key To SEO

If you want to optimize your website for SEO, posting blog articles and updating page titles and meta descriptions might be the first strategy that comes to mind. But, as image search and social media gains popularity worldwide, investing in product photography is just as important as a keyword-rich blog post, especially if you’re hoping to drive relevant traffic to your website. As the saying goes, a picture can paint a thousand words, and creative eCommerce photography can help your business to thrive online. As algorithms favor quality over quantity and position user experience as a key ranking factor, more retailers are looking for freelance photographers in Dubai to enhance their website and social media profiles with stunning visual content. So, in this article, we’re going to discuss the connection between image search, product photography, and SEO. 

eCommerce & Image Search

Whether you want to sell electronics, designer handbags, or perhaps organic cosmetics online, product photography can make or break your conversion rate online. While a product description can help you to highlight unique selling points and key features, if the image is of low quality or fails to represent the product well, users are likely to shop elsewhere. When you invest in product photography you are improving user experience and giving your products the best possible chance of being sold online. 

Now let’s consider image search and eCommerce. More users are choosing to image search for goods online than use the search box. From Google reverse image search and TinEye, a reverse image search engine, to Pinterest a social media platform built on visual content, more people than ever before are searching by taking a picture on a smartphone device or uploading an image to the search engine. So to increase traffic to your website, you should be updating it with product photography and adding image alt tags when you upload new visual content in order to increase the chances of being discovered online. An image alt tag tells search engines such as Google what the image is about, and which search inquiries to show the image for. Clear and professional product photography helps search engines identify the product in the image and therefore will increase the chances that your product will appear when a customer uses reverse image search. 

Suppose you sell organic virgin olive oil online, use the image alt tag ‘Organic Virgin Olive Oil 500ml’ to appear in image search results for this search query. Plus, always save product photography as a keyword-rich file name, such as VirginOliveOil500ml.png rather than 5563-114.png. 

Increasing Traffic Through Product Photography 

Once you’ve got the hang of image alt tags and file names, it’s time to move onto social media marketing to increase traffic to your website and to specific product pages. Pinterest has around 2.46 million active users in UAE as of 2021 and this figure is expected to rise even further. So, set up a Pinterest account for your business and create a ‘pin’ for each product or service you sell. By using product photography to market your business online you can help drive relevant traffic to your individual product pages. According to recent data, advertisers can reach over 200 million people on Pinterest alone, and between January and August 2020, Pinterest enjoyed a 300% increase in add-to-cart and checkout attributed conversions. So, harness the power of image search and SEO by using product photography to boost website traffic via social media marketing.

Taking this a step further, it’s also important to understand that social media traffic is logged by Google Analytics. This means the more time users spend browsing your website, having been directed from social media, the better. Time on-page is also a key Google ranking factor and indicates that your website is of good quality and therefore should be ranked higher in the search results. Hence product photography and social media playing a vital role in your overall SEO strategy.

Freelance Photographers In Dubai

On a mission to connect freelance photographers in Dubai with clients looking to invest in visual content, Flashy.ae is a photo-tech start-up transforming the way businesses approach commercial photography. Working across MENA, we are supported by an in-house developed, content-aware editing system and offer a convenient 1-click book and shoot solution for eCommerce clients and freelance photographers in Dubai. With over 200 of the best photographers in Dubai ready to empower your brand with high-quality product photography, nurture your business growth with Flashy.ae.