When you are just getting started with your first e-commerce store, chances are that you don’t have the budget to hire an SEO expert. What search engine optimization can do for your website, is cross off a number of things on the list of essentials that search engines like Google and Bing need to index your website and send more customers to your store.
It sounds complicated if you are new to search engine and content marketing, but there are a number of things you can do independently (without hiring an SEO service provider) to improve how organic traffic. And the more website traffic you drive to your store, the more potential you have to convert those visitors to new customers and sales.
In this article, we are going to provide some background knowledge about search engine optimization, and how to make every single image on your website work, to help you find online shoppers.
Using Real Photography for Your Product Catalog
When you select products from AliExpress vendors using Dropified, in just a few mouse-clicks you can import all the product details, including descriptions, variant information and the product images. Sometimes the images provided by the vendor are not the best quality; if it’s a popular product, you may want to order it yourself and then take your own photography of the item.
One successful e-commerce business owner we know, is a camping and fishing enthusiast. He decided that he would personally order almost every product he sold on his store, specializing in camping and outdoor gear. And rather than rely on the product images provided by the manufacturer / vendor on AliExpress, he used his own photography to show the products in action, outside at the lake.
Sounds like a lot of work, right? But when you arrive on his website, the product images help translate the visualization of how customers would use them. If you can help your customers create that vision of how, when and why they would use the product you are selling, you are allowing those images to do the selling for you.
Some vendors on AliExpress do provide ‘real world’ product images that can be downloaded through Dropified and resized using our image editor. It depends on the design theme that you want to build for your website. Product images with white space around them are standard, and common in e-commerce store designs, but consider the benefit of using your own photography (if possible) to create something more eye catching and unique for your customers to experience.
What are some other inspirational ideas and examples for using custom photography for your e-commerce product catalog?
Pet Supply Vendors
If a customer has found your shop, you already share a common thread; the love of pets. So, when you are creating product images, you want to communicate that affection by incorporating as many pictures that include adorable dogs and cats, and if you cater to exotic pets, reptiles, fish and beautiful birds.
That’s not to say that you have to have your own farm or menagerie at home to accomplish this. What you can do is recruit other pet loving family members and friends, to provide their furry friend for some fun pictures that demonstrate the product and its practical use.
You know how pet-people are (because it’s your tribe). They will be pretty excited about seeing their beloved furball as a model on a website. And while you are at it, remind them to share the products and pages that their dog or cat is featured on; create some word of mouth advertising and organic traffic to your store.
Kitchenware and Culinary Stores
Do you share a love for the culinary? Selling kitchenware, small appliances and cool gadgets that help make meal preparation easier, is fulfilling a consistently high-demand market. Sure, you are competing with Big Box stores, but you can look for the unique tools that are hard to find.
When you are marketing the culinary gadgets, you sell in your e-commerce store, you will want to do some videos of great recipes and preparation techniques. Think “Tasty” and the viral cooking tutorials you see on Facebook every day. Share your passion for cooking, and help people learn how to create some delicious meals or heavenly desserts and demonstrate how you use some of the products you sell in your store.
In terms of photography for your e-commerce website, you can take some still shots as you are staging your tutorial video and use those on your product catalogue. If your kitchen isn’t exactly Food Network level chic, find the friend (or family member) who has the most luxurious kitchen, and stage your products (and videos) against a gourmet décor.
The payback for them? They get to eat something delicious with you, after you are done with the video and photography.
Fashion Retailers
Think about what motivates you to purchase a fashion item you see online. It is the picture of the shirt, dress, jeans, shoes or whatever the product is that does all the selling. The image has to reflect fashion-forward styling, and a background that reflects when, and how your customers would wear the product.
That means getting out there and finding some great locations to take a picture and stage your image. Keep in mind that while public spaces are free to photograph, some private businesses may not allow photography or videography to be captured, for commercial use. Make sure you speak to the business owner before you use any images taken on private property, for your product marketing.
Some of the most successful e-commerce fashion retailers are of course, fashionista’s who love to Instagram their latest look, and discuss fashion trends in live videos, as they assemble a great outfit. Video marketing is an important aspect to fashion retailing, and if you are not comfortable with being in front of the camera, ask for amateur model volunteers from your social circles.
Style them, shoot some great pictures for your product catalogue and create a livestream video for IGTV or Facebook, and share your expertise and advice to find and convert new shoppers.
Cosmetic Stores
If we have learned anything from the success of cosmetic sellers and subscription services like IPSY or BIRCHBOX, it is that women love to try a variety of skincare, makeup and grooming products. Over time, makeup trends change, and color schemes are updated every year, which is a great content marketing opportunity for cosmetic resellers.
Again, video tutorials on IGTV and YouTube are essential to marketing products. But styling the products for still photography can get really creative. Think about how cosmetics factor into daily life. Recruit family and friends, and get some pictures on the subway, or in a parked car (using the rear-view mirror to apply makeup). Girl’s night out? Show some friends touching up their ‘glam look’ before heading out.
Don’t forget you can hyperlink to a Facebook video or your YouTube channel in the description area for the product. It’s a great way to persuasively sell, and gain subscribers to both channels where you are sharing your cool tutorial videos.
Outdoor Tools and Gadgets
If you are a handyman (or woman), a ‘weekend warrior’ that renovates or someone who enjoys camping, fishing or hunting, you have a lot of personal knowledge and experience that you can share with your customers.
Remember that when people go looking for products from independent online retailers, they are also looking for advice. Whether they are new to the activity (and want some tips and guidance) or are experts and want some top-level ideas or new approaches, you can provide the insights they are looking for. And when you add that kind of value to every customer who visits your shop, you are converting a them into potential customers, by creating a relationship.
Short product descriptions are not as effective in this niche. Consider adding a ‘tip’ or a link to a demo video or blog on your website, for step-by-step instructions on use. Another good strategy to try, is linking to authority articles (high traffic outdoor magazines and blogs) that also provide that information. As long as the site you reference, isn’t selling the same products.
Home Décor Products
Home accessories change seasonally, and trends move just as fast as they do in the apparel fashion niche. But one of the things you need to be providing your website visitors, is information on those trends and examples of how your products can update their home affordably.
Setting the scene for home décor items on e-commerce is critically important. You have to create a wall of art, or room design that people want to buy. Help them visualize what they can create in their own interior space by showing them what is possible with the products you sell.
Isolated images with a white background can be chic as a contemporary design theme for this niche, if your category page has supporting images in the header, that show an interior setting. If not, you may want to mix it up with some original photography of the products in your own home, or another designer space.
Now that we’ve shared how you can get creative and improve your sales conversions with edited and custom product photography, learn how you can give your store an organic SEO boost, by being strategic about the file names for each image.
Optimizing E-Commerce Product Images for Search Engine Results
When you are just getting started with your first e-commerce store, chances are that you don’t have the budget to hire an SEO expert. What search engine optimization can do for your website, is cross off a number of things on the list of essentials that search engines like Google and Bing need to index your website and send more customers to your store.
It sounds complicated if you are new to search engine and content marketing, but there are a number of things you can do independently (without hiring an SEO service provider) to improve how organic traffic. And the more website traffic you drive to your store, the more potential you have to convert those visitors to new customers and sales.
Want to know an SEO secret? Put keywords in your product images, before uploading them to your e-commerce site. Take for example, a glow in the dark dog collar. Once you are done editing the image, save it on your image directory as: dog safety collar glow in dark harness. You can also add your store name to some of the image titles, such as: glow in dark dog collar pet products plus store.
Both those image naming strategies will provide an organic search boost for your e-commerce store and take under one-minute to rename and upload through the Dropified dashboard. Images are rapidly indexed by search engines, so put every image on your website to work by tooling them with short file names that contain popular search terms your customers use every day, to find online products.
Editing AliExpress Vendor Images in Dropified
Our Dropified members have access to our easy to use image editing software. You can download the image from AliExpress or upload images from another marketplace or source, and then crop the image to the correct standard size for your store. Other features include
Open the individual item in your Dropified dashboard under: Products / Saved Products. You will be able to see all the images that were scraped from the import of the product from AliExpress. You can quickly upload your own photography and substitute plain white images for eye-catching custom photos.
Visit our website and watch our video tutorial on using all the features in the Dropified Photo Editing tool. Need some extra help? Jump into our member support SLACK, and our team will be there to answer your questions.
Spend the extra time and effort on making organic SEO changes to your website. At Dropified we’re e-commerce business owners too, and we know how to help you drive traffic (and sales conversions). For more great tips and insights, follow us on Facebook. We’d love to hear your comments and feedback.
To learn more about how Dropified can help your dropshipping business thrive over the coming months and years just click the button below and get started with a FREE TRIAL today!
LEARN MORE - Start Your Free Trial
