For a long time, it was assumed that the text optimization of the individual pages of a web presence was the decisive factor. Headlines, titles, long texts, etc. were peppered with keywords in order to achieve the highest possible ranking in the search engines, i.e. to appear in the first places of the results lists for certain keywords. In addition to this content optimization, the technical optimization of pages became more and more important. The so-called Technical SEO is about optimizing the website or the individual pages of a website to such an extent that they are appealing to users from the search engine's point of view. The Swiss Google employee John Müller, whom SEO experts listen to with enthusiasm, said more than 10 years ago "Offer users an excellent website and you don't need to worry about search engine optimization anymore." What did he mean by that? Users want easy-to-use websites that display quickly on their viewing devices, that can be operated without major delays on which they can find content easily and quickly. This is exactly the requirement Google is trying to map in its Search Console. But what does a DAM, a digital asset management like the TESSA DAM have to do with this?
Performance is an important SEO factor. With a DAM you can effectively use a CDN
There are actually a few areas that are exceedingly relevant. The first point is certainly the speed of the website. Here, the amount of data of the individual pages plays a decisive role. Most of this data consists of assets provided by a digital asset management tool such as TESSA DAM. These assets - mainly photos and videos - have to be integrated into the page in a data-optimized way so that they can be displayed on the user interfaces as quickly as possible. Documents, such as user manuals, data sheets, certificates, etc., usually have a smaller amount of data. The concrete role of the DAM at this point is actually to be able to automatically provide an asset in a size exactly intended for the intended use and in the optimal file format in each case. If the design of a website calls for an image in 1,200 x 1,200 pixels, then the TESSA DAM automatically generates a corresponding file for all products - let's say as a JPEG - because this allows for the smallest amount of data and because no transparent background is required. For overview pages, a smaller image is usually required - perhaps in 300 x 300 pixels. This is also provided automatically. For the TESSA DAM we call this Channels. And because the performance of the website is an extremely important asset, the files are also provided via a CDN - a Content Delivery Network service. This ensures the highest performance. The DAM should be able to address the best CDN for your task. The TESSA DAM has a dedicated connector for Cloudflare for this case. Only with a DAM in combination with a PIM, such as Akeneo, is it efficiently possible to bring about this setting. Once the concept is configured, the rest works automatically: if a new image is to be added to a product, perhaps a back view, then this only needs to be loaded into the DAM with the correct file name and the rest works automatically. The image contributes to an improved customer experience, and that's exactly what Google wants site owners to do: Provide users with great websites - and that includes efficient and performant delivery of visual content. By the way, if your company produces a lot of products, you should also provide retailers with appropriately adapted image material - this way your products will be found and bought better there, too.
File names customized for SEO
But that's not all: A DAM like the TESSA DAM can be helpful in other areas as well. In SEO, the file names of images and files are also considered important search-relevant components. These can of course also be automatically adjusted and thus optimized by the DAM. The TESSA DAM has interfaces to Product Information Management systems (PIM). From there, content such as product names or relevant keywords up to specially prepared file names can be retrieved and subsequently integrated as file names. This is also done automatically - as soon as it is configured. This way, your products are also found via the image search. Whereby a DAM can do even more at exactly this point: We have already referred to the Google Cloud Visions API elsewhere. This makes it possible to tag photos using AI, to recognize objects, logos, etc. on the image material. Apart from the fact that Google most likely also uses this AI for search, it is thus possible for us to recognize for which keywords our photos would be found. So, with the help of our TESSA DAM, we also have the possibility to check if our visuals are recognized by Google as desired. Of course, we can incorporate the tags obtained in this way - circularly - into the content of the pages and into the file names. We have customers who transfer tags obtained through the TESSA DAM via interfaces into other systems for further processing.
Conclusion
Digital asset management part of the SEO strategy
A DAM should also be a relevant part of your SEO strategy if your company has to manage many products. This way, your output channels simply become more performant and offer users a better experience. This is exactly what Google rewards with better positions in the results list.
