Pay more attention to visual search

Crystal says: “My number one SEO tip for 2023 is to prepare your images for visual search.”

Which search engine are we talking about; Pinterest, Google image search something else?

“Visual search has evolved quite significantly during the course of 2022. I expect that, in 2023, it will evolve even further.

Preparing for visual search doesn’t mean preparing for image search because many people think it is the same thing. image search is just a valuable part of the former, and image search SEO tactics are a valuable part of visual search optimisation, but they do different things.

For example, if you are preparing a photo of a loaf of bread for image search, you will be entering image search attributes, like alt tags, file titles, file size, etc. Those will help users find you if they enter the text you’ve attached - or some text similar to some of the cues you’ve added to your image attributes.

Visual search is about images, visuals, recognition, and image recognition. Essentially, someone would take a photo of a loaf of bread, and Google will use their various tools and image recognition abilities to understand that image. You might take a picture of a loaf of bread, and they might say ‘this is a baguette’, ‘sourdough’, or ‘a pretzel’. Their visual search recognition tools can parse different information about that image to give the user even more holistic information in ways that would be impossible to type out if you were doing so manually. Sometimes, you’re looking at something, you don’t know what it’s called and can’t search for it with words, so you have to describe it.

Visual search allows users to understand the world without necessarily knowing what a thing is called. Search engines can also return not just images but any kind of content. You might get back a video, a Featured Snippet, or whatever is appropriate for that particular query. Sometimes it’s shopping information as well.

You need to consider your standard with image optimisation when preparing your images, but also think about other elements. Remember that Google cannot understand text backwards - not currently, anyway. If you have images with text in them, ensure the camera can understand them the right way around.

Another thing is that Google can understand entities that include many things. For example, a bicycle can include more abstract things like sunsets or mountains, so it also helps to consider those. If it was a loaf of bread, you might want to show a chopping board, knife, or butter, which would help Google understand that this is a loaf of bread.

Particularly for brands, you should include your logo, where appropriate, when preparing images. Google can also understand your logo, particularly if your brand is entered into the Knowledge Graph. So, for instance, if you have a Wikipedia page, ensure that your logo matches what’s on your structured data and in your Google Merchant Centre information. That way, when people take photos of your products and search, they can find them based on your logo and any images you have.”

Is image search when the user is looking for images in search engines, while visual search is a user using their own image to find results?

“When you consider what you see with Google Lens - which is the primary driver for this - you would take the photo and have the option to see visual matches of similar things. You need to consider the types of images people use to interact with your brand, when thinking about your brand and the kinds of images you should have on your website.

For example, there’s a photo of me next to the Space Shuttle at the California Science Centre, which is the same photo they have on their homepage. They know that everybody walks in and wants a picture with the space shuttle, and those are the kind of pictures that people take. They have that on their website so that people enter that photo, and it’s the same photo on their Knowledge Graph and website. When people are looking for that visual or that place, they can find it quickly - because NASA has prepared themselves for visual search.”

What type of business could get a lot of value for optimising for a visual search? How would you go about doing it?

“It applies to many businesses. A small business that I have looked at, a girly salon, created a unique image distinct to them. One of the things they did was create a highly Instagrammable space with lots of flowers, and put that on their Google Business Profile and website. When users enter the pictures that they take in that space, you can search with those photos - using Google Lens, the Bing tool, and Pinterest. If you enter that image into Google Search, Google knows that the business is connected to that image, because they also added it to their website.

That’s something that can apply to many different businesses. Even if you’re a small business, many people will already be taking photos of your lattes or tiramisu. Also, Google is using Google My Business photos for their visual search to return visual search results. They now have an option called ‘near me’ where, if you take a picture of something, they can scan it across all their Google Business Profile photos and show the user how far away the business is.

This applies to businesses of all sizes. If you are a large business, then visual search is important when you’re thinking about things like sponsorships. For smaller companies, it can enhance brand visibility locally.

Google can use visual recognition to create search results and increase brand fit and visibility. It’s important to consider how your brand is visible and how those images can affect your ranking in the SERPs. It might not even be on your website, but it will impact your overall brand visibility - which is really important.”

How can you optimise your site to give it a better opportunity to display for those visual results?

“All of the standard image optimisation stuff still applies; ensure you’ve got unstructured data for your images with all text and captions. But also, think about which images you include and which are most likely to align with what people will be searching for.

If you know that you have visual brand representations going out in the world, make sure they have space on your website. For instance, if your van is marked up and you spent all that time on getting a custom wrap on your van - make sure it’s on your website too, so that people can see what you’re doing. While you’re at it, there is an opportunity to think about galleries and provide the context. That adds value in several ways, even for visual search.

Regarding visual search, it’s also about the content you include and ensuring that your content is backed up by the research of the kinds of images people are taking. Ensure you’re including images similar to what people will be searching for. If you’re not sure what types of content you should be including, then it’s worth having a look at what images people are tagging you in on social media, Tripadvisor, Google Business Profile, Facebook, etc.

If you don’t have a customer-facing business, it might be that people are often interacting with your team. It might be worth getting people badges that say your name on them, or have the logo you can wear when you go out on company business. That way, people can find you when they need to find you. For such businesses, it can be effective (in terms of conversion rates) to create team profile pages. It helps when people are looking for a specific person and are reassured that they found the right one.

A little task for SEOs here: if you’ve got a brand that can take advantage of visual search, get photos of your brand doing something exciting and different, that could take advantage of visual search. Tweet that @majestic and also @Crystalontheweb, then include the hashtag #SEOin2023. Tell us what you’re doing. We’d love to take a look at it.”

What shouldn’t SEOs be doing in 2023? What’s seductive in terms of time, but ultimately counterproductive?

“It’s time to release the grip that we have on keywords. Keywords are super important, but I think they’re more of a guide. It’s important to know what people are thinking about. It’s also essential to do keyword research around the brand but I think that, historically, people have hammered in some of the keywords, and they are the same everywhere.

When we think about Natural Language Processing, which is one of the ways that Google understands search, we need to speak in natural language. That includes keywords, but more as a topic and less as a literal thing.

It would be great to see people thinking more holistically about keywords and how they work with ideas, entities, and a brand overall - and to be just a little less literal about them where possible.”

Crystal Carter is Head of SEO Communications at Wix, and you can find her over at wix.com/seo/learn.