Visual Search is a term that seasoned digital marketers are very familiar with. Traditionally, a user would query a search engine by entering text. What many search engine users don’t realize is that some search engines can also recognize image-based queries and return the best visual matches. This process usually involves networks and algorithms that mimic how a human brain functions when identifying images or patterns.
History of Visual Search
Google was not the first to develop visual search; TinEye was the first to leverage image association technology in 2008. However, Google was the first to put the technology into action with Google Goggles. ‘Google Goggles’ were fairly basic in the fact that they could identify unique items such as barcodes, landmarks and books and provide additional information on them. But, it was not good at recognizing everyday items, such as animals, cars and clothing.
Google also offers users a Reverse Image Search feature, which helps users find the original source of photographs, memes and profile pictures.
CamFind was the next to evolve image association technology in 2013. It allows users to snap a photo of any object then pulls the information that is relevant to that object along with shopping results. If we had to choose between Google and CamFind, the latter is more accurate in terms of finding “best matches”.
In February 2017, Pinterest, a social media platform with visual search capabilities, released Lens. This new functionality now permits Pinners to take a photo of something in the app, then Pinterest aggregates similar pins.
How Visual Search Improves SEO
The following are some of the benefits that visual search boasts in the SEO world:
• Enhances the user’s experience
• Narrows search results
• Improves bounce rate
• No typing
• More exposure to similar products
Visual Search -The Bottom Line
The future of visual search looks promising and the applications to them in the digital marketing world are far reaching. Search engines may not have perfected their algorithms, but you can be sure that Google, Bing, Pinterest, and other platforms will do it soon. Each one is steadfast at improving user experience and providing search results that best match user requests. It is recommended to get ahead with the SEO planning and testing to give your photos a real chance at ranking on visually-focused search results.
What Does This Mean for Your Current SEO Efforts
Having a website for your business goes without saying. As we move through 2018, it is not enough to properly phrase metatags of each landing page and post. Each multimedia element (images and videos) must be optimized as well. That means the titles, alt texts and descriptions must contain proper keywords that will help your users easily access them. As well, it is very important to select images that are high quality and appropriately sized. Images that are too big will affect the page load time, which will affect your rankings as well.
About iRISEmedia | Digital Marketing Agency | Toronto
iRISEmedia.com is a Toronto based Digital Marketing Agency servicing companies throughout Canada and the U.S. We specialize in SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media marketing strategy and management, digital marketing and online branding. Our team helps clients manage and grow their online presence and branding to increase qualified web traffic and online leads. iRISEmedia will review the current SEO status of all multimedia you have posted on your website and provide a free assessment of how it ranks from a visual search perspective. We will also provide recommendations on how to improve your website’s “searchability”. Contact us today to discuss further. We look forward to hearing from you!
