Visual search optimization for your website

In today’s rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape, the popularity of visual search is soaring. As search engines like Google and Bing, as well as platforms like Pinterest, enhance their visual search capabilities with AI tools, marketers now have powerful means to connect with their audience in incredibly compelling ways. Here’s our take on visual search, why it matters, and how you can optimize your content to leverage visual search to drive more traffic to your site.

What is Visual Search?

Visual search is perfect for those “I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it” moments. By uploading a photo to a search engine (like Google Lens), users can quickly find similar images, product details, and related content. For marketers, this feature is invaluable as humans process visual elements 60,000 times faster than text. Optimized images allow users to find and interact with your products within seconds.

Moreover, you can find a similar picture by simply outlining it in your browser:

Optimizing images potentially increases your site’s SEO visibility and search traffic.

Media libraries like WordPress provide text fields for entering alt tags and keywords, which will be attached to the image and displayed in search engines if you allow image indexing on your site.

Top Platforms for Visual Search

1. Google Images and Google Lens: Google simplifies information search through images. Users can upload images or use Google Lens, an AI and augmented reality-based tool, to analyze photos for relevant information or similar products.Google’s recommendations for image optimization.
2. Bing Visual Search: Bing offers similar visual search features but with added control. Users can select parts of an image to focus the search, yielding very specific results. This level of customization can be valuable for brands targeting niche segments.Bing’s recommendations for optimizing pages.
3. Pinterest: As a visually oriented platform, Pinterest’s Lens feature allows users to explore billions of pins with results carefully tailored for fashion, decor, and lifestyle. Brands in these industries can particularly benefit from searching on Pinterest. It’s an excellent option for promoting any visual product—furniture, clothing, appliances, jewelry, and more.

How to Optimize Images for Visual Search

1. Choose the Right Image File Type Formats like JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG are optimal for search engines. JPEG is best for general use, PNG for high resolution, and WebP offers smaller file sizes while maintaining quality, and improving site speed.
   JPEG: This format is compatible with almost all devices and can display a wide range of colors. It also preserves the hues of an image well. However, it uses lossy compression, which means that some data is lost during compression. As a result, JPEG is not ideal for detailed images such as digital photographs.
   PNG: This format is also universally compatible. Unlike JPEG, PNG uses lossless compression, so there is no loss of data during compression. The main disadvantage is that PNG files are usually larger in size than JPEG files, which means that they can increase page load speed.
   SVG: This format uses vectors, not pixels, to create images. This is not great for photographs, as the files end up being too large. However, it is ideal for logos, diagrams, and animated elements.
   WebP: This format is becoming increasingly popular and widely used, and it is easy to see why. WebP is great at reducing the size of images while maintaining image quality. According to Google, lossy WebP files are 25-34% smaller than JPEG files, and lossless WebP files are 26% smaller than PNG files. One drawback is that WebP is still not supported by all browsers, but that will surely change soon.
2. Resize Images for the Web Ensure images are appropriately sized for display on your site. Uploading overly large images can slow down page load times, deterring users and affecting SEO. There are plenty of free services that can optimize your images and reduce their size.
   
3. Use Descriptive Alt Text Alt text is crucial for SEO and accessibility. Adding keywords to alt text helps search engines understand the content of the image, improving visibility in search results.
   Also, if the image cannot be displayed on the site, the user will at least see a text description of the image.This means that your Alt text should be a description of what is depicted in the image, and you should use keywords in it accordingly. This way, you provide important context to search engines and align your images with user search queries. This can increase their relevance in Google Images results.Example of low optimized Alt text: grey smartwatch
   Example of well-optimized Alt text: smart watch Garmin Fenix 7 with sapphire glass 
   
4. Use Relevant Image Names and Captions Descriptive image names and captions help search engines contextualize content, improving searchability. For instance, name an image “men’s blue winter coat” instead of “IMG12345.”
   When search engines crawl your site for images, they will find the second option, which describes what exactly is in the image, much clearer. For example, the search volume for a more detailed description with keywords would be as follows:
   
5. Implement Schema Markup Use structured data like Schema ImageObject to give search engines detailed information about your images, enhancing visibility and increasing the chances of appearing in enriched results.
   This allows you to use detailed information for image optimization, such as:
   • Image title or name
   • Description of image content
   • Image file URL
   • Thumbnail URL
   • Image author
   • Date of creation or publication

   When you use Schema markup, the types of enhanced results you might see include:

   • Image thumbnail: A small preview or thumbnail of the image.
   • Title: The name or description associated with the image.
   • Author or source: Information about the source or creator of the image.
   • Publication date: If applicable, the date of publication or upload.
   • Description: A brief description or caption for the image.
   • Additional links: Links to relevant content or web pages.
   • Ratings and reviews: If appropriate, user ratings or reviews of the image.
   • Licensing information: Details about the licensing or rights of use for the image.

   Currently, Google Images supports these types of structured data:

   • Products
   • Videos
   • Recipes

   Suppose you manage an eCommerce site that sells children’s toys. If you use Schema markup to define an image as a product, Google might display the image with a price tag icon in the image pack in search results and on Google Images. To achieve this, you would need to add structured product data to your pages. Here’s how it might look:

   Ant another type of view in search results:
   

6. Originality Unique images stand out and signal trust to search engines. Whenever possible, avoid stock images and aim for original visual elements that truly reflect your brand’s value.
7. Create an Image Sitemap XML sitemaps help search engines find your pages for indexing and also help them understand the structure of your site. Image sitemaps are similar to regular sitemaps, but there are some key differences.An XML sitemap is a complete list of all the pages on your site. It includes URLs for all types of images, including blogs, articles, and product pages. You can also add image URLs to the XML sitemap to allow Google to scan and index them. This is known as adding image tags to the sitemap. You can read more about this directly in Google’s guide to sitemaps.Image sitemaps provide Google with a list of all the images on your site.This means there is a high likelihood that they will appear in the search results on Google Images, as Google can find and index them. This helps extend the reach to users who utilize visual search.

How to identify image optimization errors

To identify problem areas with image optimization on your website, you can use various services that analyze the site and detect errors. For example, you can use Semrush, Seoptimer, PageSpeed ​​Insights, GTmetrix, and Webpagetest. Based on the results, you can make a plan and optimize your website for images. The example below shows which images and how to optimize them to achieve the best result:

The Future of Visual Search in SEO

As visual search becomes more sophisticated, it’s crucial to stay ahead of trends and optimize your images. Applying these practices not only enhances site performance but also boosts your brand’s visibility on visual search platforms. Use visual search as a key part of your strategy to increase engagement, boost conversions, and captivate your audience in the visual world.