Shopify plugin Review – Avada SEO Optimizer – Free Version (Images)

In this blog post, I will be reviewing the free version of the free version of the Shopify plugin Avada SEO Optimize plugin in order to optimize my store’s images. Note that this is only a review of their free image optimizer feature. After introducing the Shopify SEO Product Images AI Image Optimizer and putting up a post in the Shopify Topics page, I started getting responses and feedback on the optimizer. This is exactly what I wanted actually. I knew it would get to the point where I’d have to compare the app to other apps for the sake of research.

I wrote the Shopify SEO Product Images AI Image Optimizer for the personal convenience it brings me. I find it super easy to use and efficient at getting the task done, and more than competing with other apps I want it to help people as much as it helps me. Without further adieu, I’m also writing this in the hopes to help somebody enjoy the features and prevent them from running into the issues I ran into while using the free version of the Shopify plugin Avada SEO Optimize plugin. Here is a list of PROs and CONs

Screenshot of the Avada SEO Shopify plugin page. The page has a YouTube video tile showing the YouTube video play button along with an infographic of the Avada SEO shopify plugin. The infographic shows HTML sitemap generation, 404 links, Search Appearance, Site Verification, and SEO Scanner, all features of the Avada SEO plugin.

PROS

  1. You can revert images in the UI with a couple of clicks if you paid the subscription.
  2. You don’t need technical knowledge.
  3. In-app Support is great, although their chat was extremely laggy at times.
  4. Good image quality. After compressing images, I was happy with the default compression settings.
  5. I like that you get the comparison of the images right on the UI.
  6. Overall great variable options to rename your images and add ALT text.
  7. The app knows which images have already been optimized so it will skip them. Say you have 2,000 products, you will not want to sit through and optimize 2,000 products again or manually select your 1,000 new products to optimize… unless you changed the optimization settings you had in your previous run… in that case the app will optimize everything again… in which case this would become a con rather than a pro.
  8. I was able to generate alt text for 900 images with the free version. I’m not sure if this is a bug on their end.

CONS

  1. Images are not converted to WEBP.
  2. One you hit “Optimize now”, you won’t be able to stop the process. If you have 900 images, then you’ll have to wait to revert them back.
  3. Avada doesn’t tell you that you need the pro plan before reverting images to their original state. This is not nice, although you’ll still have the free trial and maybe support can help you. They helped me revert my alt text, after I had hit “Optimize Now” and re assigned alt text for 900 images.
  4. File rename, alt text generation, and file compression all happen during different processes. You have to start each one manually. For filenames, you will have to rely exactly on variables that are available through your store instead of getting customizable.
  5. File alt text is based off of the available product and store information, not based off of what is in the image itself. You can’t use AI to generate ALT text.
  6. File names are also based on the available product and store information. You won’t be able to generate filenames with AI.
  7. File resize is ignored. Meaning that if I have an image that is at 1280×1280 is displayed in a max size of 800×800 you will have an additional hundred pixels being loaded for no reason. In other words, the optimizer does not take into account your maximum display sizes.
  8. You can only optimize 100 images for free, you will have to pay for Unlimited at $32 per month for more.

Overall rating for the Shopify Plugin Avada SEO Optimizer (Image feature only) – Free Version

Overall, the Shopify Plugin Avada SEO Optimize is worth the install. I will rate it a 8/10. I like the fact that you can handle everything through the UI, and for a person with less experience the app will improve your store. You will get renamed files, generated alt text, and compressed images based off of you store information. Additionally, you will also get to revert images optimizations from the UI if you are on the paid subscription. Albeit, there are some improvements to be made.

The ability to re-assign ALT text was hard to find, I actually uninstalled the app without ever noticing the option. I searched their reviews for any mentions of ALT text or file renames and none were found. It wasn’t until I reached out to support that I found the options. They are under the Search Appearance section. For the filenames, you will have to reach out to customer support for them to enable it. This is actually a loss prevention feature because of hardcoded links and whatnot. They will explain it once you ask them to enable it.
The Alt Text option in the Avada SEO Shopify plugin is not easy to find. This screenshot shows the sidebar option of "Search Appearance" under the Avada SEO Suite option, which you will have to navigate to in order to find the ALT text option.
Once you find the options though, they offer a good amount of variables to rename and generate ALT text, although none of them rely on AI to accurately rename files and generate ALT text. The alt text and filenames rely solely on what variables you have available in your Shopify store. You won’t be able to use AI credits to rename your files and generate alt text.
Screenshot of the Avada SEO Image ALT text generation feature. The feature includes options to set the scheme with which you will be generating ALT text.
A con with the app is that there is no option to set a maximum image size threshold. This means that if you’ve uploaded 2,000 x 2,000 images and will be displaying them at the max size of 1,200 x 1,200, then you’re loading additional pixels for no reason. Furthermore, you won’t be able to further optimize your images by converting them to WEBP format.
There are other good things about the app, and that’s the fact that you won’t need BASH knowledge, set up API keys, and will need very little technical knowledge at all.
Another downside I found unfortunately is the fact that you won’t be able to stop the optimization processes once they start and you’ve hit this “Optimize Now” button. If you have 2,000 images, you will sit through 2,000 images. This can be disastrous when renaming files, assigning ALT text, and compressing images. If you’re a technical person, you know the effects this could have on your SEO campaigns if you ignore it. Let’s say you incorrectly processed 2,000 products with the wrong filenames and ALT text. If you don’t revert them back instantly, you will greatly impact your SEO campaign. There should definitely be a “WARNING” sign before starting to optimize the images in any way, whether it’d be assigning ALT text, renaming, or compressing them. If you hit “Optimize Now” you will not receive any disclaimers, the processing will start immediately. I say that it would be essential to warn users to create a staging store before making any changes. This would be the ideal approach.
Screenshot of the Avada SEO plugin running and optimizing images. The plugin does not have the option to stop optimization once it starts.
Lastly, I would like to touch on the possibility of having over 2,000 products. How does the app handle this? I found a positive here, meaning that if you’ve already optimized 1,000 images, you won’t have to optimize those 1,000 images again unless you’ve changed the “Optimization Settings”…. Which will then turn this into a negative I guess. It depends on how you look at it.
If you’re not happy with your results you will be forced to upgrade to the paid plan if you’ve already consumed your free trial. You can also try contacting support.
I hope you enjoyed the review and can see the positive and along with possible pitfalls you can fall into as well!

My personal overall rating for the free version of the plugin would be a 8/10.

Let me know if you have any thoughts, concerns, and feedback!

If you would like to try out our BASH based scripts to optimize Shopify Product images, then go ahead and give our Shopify Product Media SEO AI Image Optimizer a try! You can also try out the Shopify Avada SEO plugin for free here.

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