Image SEO for CHC e-commerce

Alt text, file names, metadata, visual search: the complete technical guide to making your product images work as hard for SEO as they do for conversion -- on Amazon.co.uk, Google and British online pharmacies.

Introduction: your images are SEO assets, not just conversion visuals

Most e-commerce teams in Consumer Healthcare (CHC) know that product images are decisive for conversion. What's less well known is that these same images play a direct and measurable role in your products' visibility -- in Google Images, in enriched organic search results, in marketplace internal search engines, and now in AI-powered visual search.

In the UK, the online health and beauty market continues its sustained growth, with annual growth of approximately 15%. However, online sales still represent only a small fraction of total pharmacy sales. This means that competition for visibility is fierce: every position gained in search results represents a disproportionate competitive advantage in a market still in its conquest phase.

And here's the point that many brands underestimate: Google indexes billions of images, and Google Images represents a significant portion of all searches performed. For queries like "magnesium supplement reviews", "natural nasal spray" or "baby suncream no chemical filters", image results now appear directly in universal search results -- not just in the Images tab. A poorly optimised image is a gateway to your product page that remains closed.

This technical guide is designed for SEO teams and content teams of CHC brands operating in the British market. It covers the full spectrum of image optimisation: alt text, file names, metadata, quality signals, AI visual search, and the specifics of key platforms (Amazon.co.uk, Boots, Superdrug, Google Shopping).