Online shopping is more popular than ever, with 96 percent of Americans now reporting that they buy items on the Internet. But shoppers still face challenges when trying to find certain items, since buying online isn’t always as easy as browsing the racks at a local store. Enter visual search. Recently eBay joined Pinterest and Google in pushing for it to become easier for customers to find items. One way would be to allow customers to search for items based on an uploaded image, making it easy to find that shirt you’re admiring in stores or on a coworker. Google Lens will use machine learning to turn images into search results.But what does that mean for your business? Although you may not be ready to launch your own visual search tool, Google’s changes mean that customers could soon be able to shop your own site using a photo. Here are a few things your business needs to do to make sure you’re ready.
Google has demonstrated in recent years that quality wins when it comes to search rankings. This extends to images as well. If your photos are grainy and amateurish, you’ll likely find you’re falling behind competitors who use professional-quality photos. Difficult-to-decipher photos may also mean that your product can’t be matched to an uploaded image, which means customers won’t be able to find it in the first place. Pay for a professional photographer to take high-quality photos of your products and have each of those photos in place well before visual search takes over the landscape. If you can’t afford a local photographer, consider paying a professional editor to clean up the photos you have using editing software.
As visual search becomes more popular, results will be pulled from a variety of websites, including social media. Take note of visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest and make sure you’re cross-posting your products there. These sites are already popular with marketers, leading many to rethink the way they get the word out about their products or services. Visual search will only make it easier for the photos you post on large platforms to be discovered by consumers outside those sites. Make sure you use keywords and hashtags in your photo captions to capture the attention of search algorithms and help social media users find your posts.
When it comes to image search, tags are still essential. This starts with choosing a filename that matches your SEO goals, then extends to the alt-text you use to tag your photo. Make sure you’ve put your keyword research to use in this area, just as you did in the content you wrote on the rest of your page. Take the time to study good image SEO practices, which includes ensuring your image is the right size. If load time slows your page down too much, this could also hurt you in rankings. If your images are part of a blog post or article on a page, make sure you add them in context, with the surrounding text matching what the image portrays. If you’re simply uploading it to your ecommerce store, provide a high-quality description of the item that includes keywords customers are likely to use.Image search stands to fundamentally change the way businesses sell products to customers. By beginning to prepare in advance of this trend, you’ll be able to get ahead of the competition, boosting your sales and reaching more customers.How do you plan to adjust your online activities to prepare for image search? Let us know in the comments below!
