Images are a key component for almost every website, in fact it’s hard to find a page online that doesn’t contain at least one.
For this reason, image optimisation plays a vital role in website housekeeping. Optimising your images helps them to rank higher on SERPs, makes them more voice search friendly, funnels traffic to your page and ultimately improves UX.
With that in mind, alt-text is one of the most obvious places to start.
Imagine you are a shop owner, selling to the general public. As the centre of your business, the building itself would be somewhere customers feel comfortable, at ease, guided by clear signage and top notch customer service advisors. Shelves would be stacked in an orderly and strategic manner, items would be priced clearly, and staff would be friendly, helpful and available.
What’s more, the store would be clean and warm (or cool, depending on your hemisphere...), with an engaging and attractive interior that is aligned with your brand identity.
The reason I paint this picture is because your website deserves the same investment.
“It’s not very user-friendly.”
You've maybe used those words before, or heard them muttered in frustration as a friend, relative or colleague tries to navigate their way around a poorly designed app or a website.
But they are most certainly not words you want to be associated with your own website or app.
You might be missing out on an easy opportunity to improve your company’s website performance: image optimisation.
Google recommends image optimisation as one of the top three fixes for slow page load time. Images make a staggering difference and often account for most of the bytes downloaded on a page.
Images deliver the core message of your content. Including at least one image in a post can potentially double share rates, and help readers to retain more information than text alone.
Removing images from your site isn’t viable, but reducing their weight is.
Research shows that 80 per cent of professional services buyers visit a company’s website to evaluate them as a potential provider.
So, if you're a professional services company your website needs to be giving off all the right messages.
Your website is a product of your business, and therefore a reflection of your work. A poorly designed website gives the impression you don’t care for your customers and are ok with mediocrity.
The point is, your website can make or break your business.
Take Apple for example. As one of the largest global technology companies, you’d expect them to have a well-designed and responsive website, right? Otherwise, how could anyone trust their products?
Google is the master of user experience.
Tirelessly working to update their algorithms, analyse user behaviour, study intent, goals, and gripes to ensure the best experience possible.
And, they do all of this while keeping their staff well-fed and well-kept with ball pits, slides, and free lunches. What gives?!
It’s no accident that Google has cemented its reputation as the internet leader, seeing us through an unforgiving digital revolution.
They don’t get complacent.
We’re highly adaptable creatures, and the way we access and consume content is constantly changing in line with advancements in technology. Equally, the volume of online information is growing, and algorithms have a responsibility to present us with what they deem the top portion of content in a sea of endless web pages.
It’s completely natural to want to approach your web design 'desktop first' - when you plot out your best content ideas the instinct is to go big. You're itching to impress with a great looking website that promotes the heart of your business, and for that you want a big canvas.
However, although a striking desktop presence is important, focusing on achieving that - rather than optimisation for mobile - neglects the behaviour of a significant portion of site visitors.
An astounding amount of traffic is generated by users on mobile devices: 65% of all digital media time is spent on them. Arguably, desktop use is now secondary. The affordability of smartphones and popularity of tablets suggests this percentage is unlikely to decrease.
We’ve written about optimisation strategies and SEO before. And sure, they are some of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your website. But what happens after you’ve been found? The goal changes, right?
You need conversions.
Converting your visitors into leads, your leads into customers, and your customers into promoters takes time and investment. And perhaps one of the biggest investments is your microcopy.
We're talking about those small blocks of text in highly trafficked areas of your site, including CTA buttons, instructional copy and messages of reassurance. They tell users what to do (“Write your full name here”), alleviate concerns ("Don’t worry, we’ll only use your email address once”), and move them deeper into your site (“Learn more”).
Get these right, and your chances of converting can increase tenfold.
