Getting Started with TinyIMG: Plan Options, Main Features, Additional Perks and More

Some apps are necessary only for a specific group of Shopify sellers. And then there are apps necessary for every single Shopify store, no matter what it sells or how big it is. TinyIMG falls into the second category.

TinyIMG will transform the way you handle your store’s SEO and noticeably boost your store’s loading times.

Currently TinyIMG offers automated image optimization, JSON-LD implementation, metadata, ALT text and filename optimization, site audit, script control and a tool to fix your broken links.

That’s a lot, so how do you get the most out of everything?

The whole TinyIMG team came together to make sure your store maximizes TinyIMG benefits, and the result is this guide.

We’ll start off with existing client success stories for some real-life inspiration. Then we’ll dive into illustrated walkthroughs of the app's features and suggested readings for the extra curious. Finally you’ll learn about our knowledge base, partner deals, generous affiliate program and external tools.

We recommend that you work on your Shopify store alongside this guide.

Whenever you’re ready - let’s do this.

Get inspired by success stories

On paper, everyone can do a lot. If you want real evidence from real Shopify business owners, take a look at TinyIMG client success stories. Their results and experiences speak for themselves.

• Higooga pet supply store aims to become an IKEA for pets, and you can’t do that with a slow website. With 1500+ images optimized and a total of 850MB saved, Higooga has almost no page speed issues. More so, they call TinyIMG a must-have for every small business owner because powerful automations at an affordable price are a true lifesaver.
• Speedd Italian shoe and accessory store had a killer social media presence, but struggled a bit with organic traffic. TinyIMG reduced image size and saved 3.6GB of space. Significantly better page speed helped climb those rankings and drive traffic. As a bonus, they praise TinyIMG for how intuitive the interface is.
• Caravan Cover Shop cut load time by 3 seconds and achieved an SEO score of 90. That’s thrilling on its own, but they also pointed out that TinyIMG support is second to none.

Are you ready to join them? Let’s get you there.

#1 Set up the app

After you install TinyIMG, complete a short set up process:

First, choose the .jpg format for your images.

Then, set up the ALT text and image resizing settings:

Our recommended variables for ALT texts and filenames are #product_name# - #shop_name#.

If you have something else in mind for your store, use the other template variables or contact our support and we’ll be happy to create custom ones.

#2 Pick the perfect TinyIMG plan for you

Next step is choosing your TinyIMG plan.

To suit the needs of every store, TinyIMG has five pricing options available:

1. Beginner ($9,99/mo, billed monthly)
2. Advanced ($19,99/mo, billed monthly)
3. 24-month plan ($2.99/mo, billed every 2 years)
4. Enterprise plan ($39.99/mo, billed monthly)
5. Pay as you go (price depends on your needs)

Here’s what you get with each of them:

Beginner - $9.99/mo, billed monthly

Best for: new Shopify sellers, stores interested only in image optimization.

This plan allows you to optimize 1000 free images per month. After reaching this limit, each image costs you 2 cents.

You also get to resize and compress your images with no quality loss. And, in case you change your mind, you have access to a 30-day image backup.

This plan comes with an SEO checklist, audit and script control for your home page. You are also entitled to two life-saving features - broken link redirect and image lazy loading.

However, you do not get access to the rest of the goodies that would revamp your website’s SEO: JSON-LD structured data, automated metadata, script control (only on the homepage) and more.

Suggested reading:

• What is Image Compression and How Does it Work? - understand the exact process your images go through when TinyIMG is at work.
• Shopify Image Optimization in 8 Steps - learn about additional benefits of image optimization and make the most out of image SEO.
• Shopify Redirects: How to Create and Manage Them - handle your future redirects correctly to prevent broken links and save backlinks.

Advanced- $19.99/mo, billed monthly

Best for: mid-range and big stores with wide product selection and numerous product variants (e.g. fashion and accessories, cosmetics, food and beverages, furniture and home decor stores).

The most popular plan of TinyIMG that covers the needs of all midsize and large stores.

If you’re looking to forget about image optimization and watch Google rankings improve with automated SEO features, this is your plan.

You can optimize a total of 3000 free images per month. After reaching this limit, each image would cost you only 1 cent.

You also get to use a comprehensive Site Audit, as well as automate SEO metadata and implement JSON-LD structured data with a few clicks.

Suggested reading:

• Shopify Meta Descriptions and Titles: Tips and Examples - understand nuances of metadata that conquer the SERPs.
• Shopify Structured Data: Why and How to Add It to Your Store - everything you need to know about JSON-LD, rich snippets and click-through rate improvement.

24-month plan - $2.99/mo, billed every 2 years

Best for: single-product stores, homemade product sellers, gadget and technology stores, niche stores (e.g. stores that sell kitchenware, gaming chairs, sport’s supplement).

For Shopify stores that have very few images, want access to SEO features and are ready to make long-term commitments.

Basically, it’s the exact same as our Advanced plan, except that you can only optimize 5000 images per 2 years. It’s perfect if you’re not planning to add any images to your store any time soon, but want access to all the advanced audits and SEO features.

Enterprise plan - $39.99/mo, billed monthly

Best for: wholesalers, dropshippers, POD stores and all other big players out there.

Are you a Shopify giant with hundreds of new products and thousands of clients every month? Unlock the power of our Enterprise plan.

You’ll enjoy 10,000 free image optimizations every month. Every additional image costs 8 cents, but it’s highly unlikely you would need that.

It goes without saying that you get access to all of our powerful and automated SEO features and site audits.

What’s more, you’ll be entitled to one-on-one calls with a dedicated manager. You’ll work together to solve problems before they even occur and find unique angles for your store’s success with TinyIMG.

Pay as you go - price depends on your needs

Best for: testing the app’s interface and basic functionalities.

Not ready to commit to a paid plan just yet? No problem, you can always take TinyIMG for a test run with a “Pay as you go” option.

In this case, you’ll get to see the TinyIMG interface and optimize 50 images for free. If you exceed the optimization limit, you get charged 3 cents per image.

Except for an SEO audit of your homepage, you won’t be receiving access to any SEO or audit features as well as image resizing.

#3 Understand the app and all its features

Congrats, you’re in! Time to dive deep into everything that TinyIMG can do for your store.

All of it is located within the top menu designed to navigate the app with ease.

The five main menu sections serve very specific purposes:

• Dashboard - quickly jump back to the main page of the app that highlights app’s features and information about your store.
• Improve speed - work on image optimization, asset preloading and script control to reduce your website load time.
• Improve SEO - improve organic rankings with metadata, image ALT texts, JSON-LD, and broken link redirects.
• Site audit - access reports about technical website issues, errors, warnings and recommendations to prioritize your effort effectively.
• Settings - set up automations, cap image optimization, and find your billing information.
• My account - access quick summary of your plan and optimization credit, as well as the app’s FAQ and an option to change the app's language.

Let’s click through each one of them and maximize their value, starting with the Dashboard.

Skim the dashboard

Your journey with TinyIMG begins with the Dashboard. This page is designed for convenient access to TinyIMG main features, recommendations and your store’s monthly stats.

Improve site speed highlights your store’s errors and TinyIMG recommendations to improve page load times. Start now button gives you a shortcut to each feature so you can solve the issues immediately. If you see some errors at the moment, ignore them, as we will cover them in detail in the following sections.

Improve SEO serves the exact same purpose for all SEO-related aspects of your website.

On the right handside, you can find the main stats about what TinyIMG has done for your store this month together with a week-on-week breakdown of image optimizations.

Scroll a bit more to see recommendations and deals from our trusted partner apps.

One last thing - see that cheerful-looking orange blob at the bottom right of the page? That’s where our superstar customer support lives, ready to assist you on a 24/7 live chat.

Improve store speed

Click on the second tab of the menu, Improve speed, and you’ll get a dropdown with four options: Optimize images, Preload assets, Control scripts and Lazy load images.

Optimize images

This feature is the bread and butter of TinyIMG and one of the most significant features for your store speed.

The Overview of optimizations provides you with lifetime stats regarding your Shopify store’s image optimization. If there are any new and unoptimized images on your store, the total number appears right underneath (in this case, it says “No images found”).

The Recent Optimizations lists all image optimizations performed on your store over time. You can see an overview of their status, when they happened, the total number of images optimized and how much space was saved.

If you click on the highlighted Details button, you’ll see the list of individual images from each optimization and their optimization stats. The highlighted button lets you restore them to their previous version or download the optimized image.

There are a few image types we cannot reach automatically (e.g. banner images). Any image left unoptimized during automatic optimization can be optimized manually with an in-app Manual image optimization tool.

Right below it you can also find a helpful FAQ list available in every section of the app as well.

Preload assets

Next up is asset preloading, a very impactful trick to help browsers load content faster. Basically it means that everything on your web page (images, code, etc.) will be organized into a priority queue. The assets that are crucial for your page to show up immediately will be loaded first and remaining will follow, cutting your page load time significantly.

The preloading process is triggered when the customer hovers over a link. When they click on it, they get an impression that the page loaded instantly.

The only thing you need to do is click Activate and check your images as per the red warning.

Control scripts

Now let’s talk about script control.

This lesser-known feature makes sure all Shopify apps you have installed are working only in your favor. You see, every app you install adds scripts to all pages of your store, which slow down the load times. However, you need most of those apps only on one or two pages.

Disabling unnecessary scripts optimizes page load speeds for your entire store.

You can do that by toggling scripts on/off in our Script control panel.

If you’re unsure how to determine script necessity, explore our FAQ section at the bottom and don’t hesitate to click on the I need help button, our support will be thrilled to assist you.

Lazy load images

Last up, let’s dive into one of our newer features, image lazy loading.

Basically, this handy feature improves page load time by loading only what’s necessary immediately.

To implement lazy loading, web page resources are divided into critical (what’s necessary for the page to show up) and non-critical (what shows up only after the user scrolls). Critical resources get loaded immediately, whereas non-critical resources are loaded only when they’re needed.

The result?

Visibly faster initial page load times, better perceived performance, and improved Core Web Vitals.

Benefit from lazy loading by activating in on your Shopify theme.

We recommend first creating a duplicate version of your theme for backup, test lazy loading and only then enable it on your main theme. Our support can walk you through the process.

Improve SEO

Now let’s move on to the third tab of the top menu, Improve SEO. When you click on it, a dropdown with four options shows up: Edit metadata, Edit ALT texts, Add JSON-LD, and Fix broken links.

Let’s start from the top.

Optimize metadata

Metadata (meta title and meta description) is the first thing people see when they find your page on Google. A good meta title helps you rank higher, whereas meta description ensures people actually click on your listing.

What constitutes good metadata highly depends on the page in question. To make it easy, our SEO metadata section is conveniently grouped by types of pages on your Shopify store.

You can manage them using two different modes, View and Bulk mode. We’ll also show you how to set automated metadata creation.

View mode

The View mode includes detailed recommendations and is great for beginners. It gives you access to the list of metadata from pages of your selected category alongside their focus keyword (determined by you) and SEO score.

To help you prioritize, the list is automatically sorted from the worst score to the best.

Whenever you’re ready to start improving your metadata, click on Edit.

For you to make the most out of this example, let’s take a peek inside the second product page (Pearl necklace) with a perfect 100 SEO score.

Set the target keyword (the keyword you want this page to rank for on Google) and the score will tell you how good your current metadata is.

The best part comes up after you scroll down - optimization suggestions based on the focus keyword you entered. To get the perfect score, edit your metadata until all check marks are green.

Now take a final look at the preview of your listing on the left, click Save if you like what you see, and move on to the next page.

Bulk mode

If you’re confident in your metadata optimization skills and want to speed up the process, use Bulk Mode. You’ll get info on the length of your meta titles and meta descriptions, but no scores or tips on how to improve the phrasing.

The fastest way to handle it is to set the filter on Requires attention and edit fields that exceed the character count.

Automatic optimization

Too many products or not enough confidence in your SEO skills? No problem, you can trust our metadata automation.

By default, metadata automation is deactivated, but you can easily change that by clicking on Edit settings from both View and Bulk modes.

You’ll be taken to a dedicated page that you can also access from the Settings tab. Unless you have something specific in mind, we recommend going with our default variables and simply clicking Activate.

Write good alt texts

In short, ALT texts help your images and pages rank better by providing more context that Google really appreciates (it’s a smart bot, but still a bot). ALT texts need to describe the image in detail, read like a sentence and, ideally, contain keywords.

Upon loading the page, click on View and get to work straight away.

You can see a list of products alongside the amount of ALT text errors found among their images. Click Edit to correct the ALT texts.

If you skipped ALT text automation step during the setup and want to enable it now, you can access the automatic ALT text generator from this and the previous section by clicking on Edit Settings.

We suggest using our default variables and simply clicking Activate.

Implement JSON-LD

You know those eye-catching product listings on Google, the ones that feature product price, availability and other details? They are called rich snippets and you get them by implementing JSON-LD structured data.

If you were to do it on your own, the process is quite hard and technical. With TinyIMG, all you need to do is provide information in the dedicated fields.

If you have a physical location for your business alongside the online store, make sure to enter those details as well.

Click Activate and your structured data is live!

Suggested reading:

• If you’re interested, learn about the intricacies of JSON-LD with our guide to Shopify structured data.

Fix broken links

Broken links is one sure way to lose customers. Let’s make sure that never happens with the Fix broken links section.

You have the option of managing broken links from Shopify theme editor by clicking Handle.

Right underneath is where you create redirects preemptively, before you delete a page. Simply click on Create redirect.

In the following popup you need to provide a URL of the page you’re deleting and a new one, usually a page with similar purpose. We’ll take it from there.

Down below you’ll find a list of broken links on your store. You can manually add redirects to the most relevant live pages by clicking Edit.

And that’s how you make sure there are no loose ends on your website!

Analyze site audit reports

Site audit section is where all useful insights into the state of your website live. It analyzes your technical website performance and offers you reports designed to help prioritize effort.

Reports are available for every page of your store and grouped into categories by page type.

To access the details, click on Get report/Reports.

You’ll see the overview of your page, starting with the most serious errors.

Scroll down to find a list of all the issues. While some errors will require making changes on Shopify admin, you can fix most of them directly from here by clicking Edit. And whenever you’re unsure how to handle something, hover over the error and click on Learn more.

You’ll get access to a detailed explanation of the website element in question and how to handle the issue.

Finetune app settings

Time to dive into the Settings tab. This is where most automation tools and additional perks are located.

You can navigate this section using a dedicated menu on the left.

We have already covered ALT text, filename, SEO metadata, and asset preloading pages in the previous sections, so we’ll skip over them.

The tab called General contains four ways to boost your store optimization automatically:

• When active, automatic optimization ensures daily optimizations run automatically for your store.
• Convert PNG to JPG ensures all your image files are served in JPG format. Since PNG file size is a lot larger due to the image properties, converting them to JPG will save a lot of space.
• Advanced image reduction allows maximum possible image reduction, down to 800px. If you use a zoom function in your store, your images might suffer some quality loss, so be mindful of that.
• Optimize your images gives you the freedom to choose which types of images you’d like to include and exclude from automatic optimization.

We also haven’t touched upon two functionalities regarding Broken links found specifically in the Setting section.

One super important feature is Automatically redirect broken links. If you put a URL, usually homepage, into the provided field, every page you delete will automatically redirect there. Later on, you can manage those redirects manually and find more accurate solutions in the Fix broken links section we covered earlier, but at least there will never be any dead ends on your store.

Receive broken links reports is automatically let to monthly frequency. You also have a weekly option, but it’s not necessary unless you make very frequent changes to your store’s URL structure or product selection.

Now let’s jump straight down to TinyIMG badge. It’s a nifty little addition to your websit’es footer. You can select your brand colors, preferred size and alignment.

It will show up in your footer, letting your customers know you take very good care of your website.

And if you’d rather keep your footer as empty as possible, message our support and we’ll disable it in no time.

Last up, clicking on Billing information gives you a detailed breakdown of your plan and an easy way to upgrade it.

Review your account

Last but not least, let’s see what helpful information is available to you in the My account section.

The first part gives you a basic overview of your subscription plan, remaining credit and reset date.

Down below you’ll find a link to the Settings section we covered previously. Integrations & Special deals takes you to a dedicated partner page with deals and app recommendations, whereas Frequently Asked Questions is a huge database of useful information about TinyIMG features and best SEO practices.

Lastly, you can change the language of the entire app by clicking on the arrow next to English. As of now, we support 12 in-app languages and the list keeps growing.

#3 Learn from our knowledge base

At this point, you’re a master of the TinyIMG app. But for those of you who are always striving for more - there indeed is more!

We are constantly expanding the scope of TinyIMG, and that includes our knowledge base.

Here’s what we have as of now.

Discover TinyIMG blog

This is something we’re very proud of. We’ve been intensely working on TinyIMG blog for over three years and it’s shaping up into a full-blown library of resources for Shopify business owners.

We don’t want it to be just another attempt by a business to generate organic traffic. We want it to be genuinely helpful. That’s why we do unique research, comprehensive app reviews, and prioritize blog quality over quantity.

What can you find on TinyIMG blog?

Shopify guides for new sellers:

• What is Shopify and How Does It Work?
• How to Make Money on Shopify in 2023?
• How to Start a Successful Shopify Store in 2023

Shopify app and theme reviews:

• Best Shopify Apps for Your Store’s Success
• Best Shopify Themes for Your Business Website
• Best Converting Shopify Themes

Every image-related guide imaginable:

• Shopify Image Optimization in 8 Steps
• Guide to Shopify Image Sizes
• How to Compress a JPG file

Detailed technical guides:

• Shopify Responsive Images: What You Need to Know
• Shopify URL Structure, Limitations and SEO
• Shopify Structured Data: Why and How to Add It
• Shopify Lazy Loading and Why It’s Good For Your Store

Guides to help you prep for big days:

• Halloween Design Ideas to BOOst Shopify Store Sales
• Shopify Store Preparation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Independent research:

• 100 Best Shopify Stores Analyzed: Takeaways

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Learn and grow together with us!

#4 Get to know our partner apps (and their exclusive deals)

We have invested a lot of time in understanding how to best optimize Shopify websites for performance and we’re among the leading apps in our niche.

Next step for us is to ensure you can find your TinyIMG equivalent for every aspect of your business.

That’s why we have a dedicated Partner page. These aren’t just random apps with good reviews we picked up from the Shopify app store. We work together with these apps, we know them and we can vouch for them.

Every app on this list is driven by the thought of accelerating business growth and making the life of Shopify sellers easier. And to help you see the value, all of them offer exclusive discounts and deals for TinyIMG clients. Enjoy!

#5 Join our affiliate program

Are you extra happy with what you see after installing TinyIMG? Would you like to spread the word and help more businesses benefit from affordable and automated SEO solutions (and, of course, earn in the process)?

Join our affiliate program and let’s grow together! You’ll be promoting a product you believe in for a generous 30-50% revenue share. We can also help out with marketing materials if you wish.

Bonus: Use our external compressors and converters

TinyIMG takes care of everything related to images on your Shopify store, but do you know that you can use our tools to compress or convert images from your computer?

Let us introduce you to four tools available on TinyIMG website:

• WebP converter - store and serve your images in a next-gen format.
• JPG compressor - compress your JPG files with no quality loss.
• PNG compressor - reduce the size of your PNG images without losing any image elements.
• Image compressor - compress up to 10 JPG and PNG files at once.

Let’s do this, shall we?

Well that was something!

We covered TinyIMG setup, all features and how to maximize their potential. You also learned about TinyIMG knowledge base you can use to unlock the full potential of your store, partners and affiliate program to help you maximize profit as well as handy external tools.

We hope you enjoyed the process of improving your store performance and remember, we’re always here to help.

Also, we always add new features to our TinyIMG app and website, so make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to be among the first that benefit from them.

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About the author

Nikoleta Kokleviciute

Nikoleta is a Marketing Manager at TinyIMG, an app for image and SEO optimization for Shopify merchants. Nikoleta loves diving deep into digital marketing, eCommerce, social media trends, and creating content that benefits its readers!