Should I watermark my product images

[BipSum]

I am in the process of creating new images for my products to use on my website.  Are there any advantages or disadvantages of watermarking each image?  Is there an SEO impact good or bad?  I am aware that filename and Alt tags are important, but am unsure if google dislikes watermarked images.

[BipSum]

Hi all, thanks for your comments.  Looks like it wouldn't do any harm if I had a small brand logo placed on each image.  Will have a think and probably just go for it.

Thanks.

[vmialik]

Time might come, and might be around the corner when, images in Google Search will be OCR'd (scanned for text/wording and made searchable) this will result in your watermarks if its in Copyright Joe Smith (text form) will be searchable.

Also thing about this if you are using image search with an image of your brand, (not sure about practically but theoretically) you should be able to find all your images if they are watermarked with your Brand image in Google image search.

So if you are planning to future proof your images for image SEO go for it!

[Sharla]

Are you selling your own manufactured goods or reselling someone elses? If you're reselling someone elses, don't they have images of their products already to use?  I think it's rare for a reseller to take all their own product images, but if you do because you feel it gives you an edge, I would use your own logo prominently rather than as a watermark.  Maybe you have an artistic presentation of goods that needs proprietary protection - that is the only case I can see for potential watermarking.

And, if you're selling your own goods, do you also sell them to others for resale?  I frequently need product photos from manufacturers for promotion by authorized sellers of their brands.

Different companies have different ways they let marketing depts retrieve images, and from my side, the easier it is, the better.  I've never seen anyone put watermarks on their images, but some create their sites so you have to go through a lengthy registration process and wait to hear back - huge pain in the kisser for me as I have to go to the client, they have to find the account, get it back to me, I enter it, oops, website says not that string of numbers, go back... etc.  Time suck warp.

Some companies make their images non-downloadable (though there are some workarounds and screen shots).  The ones I like best - just let me have the images, no mess, no fuss.  I am after all trying to sell their products.

Then, I brand a corner with the resellers logo, but not as a watermark; rather it's a notice that yes, this company carries this merchandise.  And for SEO, if the reseller branded image of the original product comes up in image search (which they do sometimes as I always fully tag out my images), then all the better.  If you're selling your own goods with no authorized resellers, I think I would brand a corner also - no watermark, just a logo, but only if for some reason your logo is not already on the products.

[AWCthreads]

Does the mark say, "EGOL?"

[EGOL]

I do the bottom left or right...  Weasels still steal it.  Some publish with my copyright mark, some paint it out, some put a textbox over my mark.

[Oren.]

Lots of good points already.  I find that small logo in a corner is helpful because even if the image is stolen, saved to a computer, reused, posted on facebook without context, whatever -- your brand is still prominently displayed.

[AWCthreads]

There may be some value in branding in that regard depending on what you're selling.

However, If its small and unobtrosive then the viewer probably wouldn't be able to tell what the logo is/says until they open the image.

Edit add - when its that small its easily removed and cropped so it really becomes a matter of whether you think its important as a branding element versus protection.

[gazzerman1]

Watermarking can have an advantage in Google images. If you have lots of images your brand will show up often and people will get to know it, without ever having visited your site.

[shendison]

Do it - For me it adds credibility when a company watermarks their images unobtrusively, and G loves credibility...

[BipSum]

Thanks for your feedback.  I was thinking about a small brand logo bottom right or left of each image.  Nothing instrusive.  For the feeds it would be clean images.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

[SErOb]

I agree w/ AWC.

If you do watermark, just make sure it's not the least bit distracting.

One ecomm site I work with has over 10,000 original product images.  They were constantly being stolen, which is annoying considering the effort that goes into the production of the images.  Once they were watermarked (via the ecomm platform), the poaching pretty much stopped.

[AWCthreads]

A watermark won't affect your rank.

In my opinion this is more a matter of the use of your time.

I very rarely see watermarks anymore on ecommerce sites. I think a watermark will do more to pollute the appearance of your product than protect your images from piracy.

From a practical perspective, Google and other shopping feeds may have rules regarding watermarks and artwork associated with products so make sure you are aware of the rules if you use feeds.

Edit add - I can recall 1 ecommerce site I've visited using watermarks and the only other places I see it are sites that sell images and artwork.