Visual Search What is it and how can it help you?

For a long time, we have been aware that in any digital business a quality, careful and coherent image can become a determining factor for users in the purchase process. And not only for digital businesses , images are essential for the branding strategies of any company.

Although this remains the case, the value of images today goes much further. Thanks to processes such as Visual Search, images have become a means to search for content in search engines , and today… keywords are no longer everything!

>> Do you have a digital business? Are your results not improving? We help you <<

Visual Search has managed to turn visual marketing and search marketing around, thus influencing the way we work on SEO positioning .

From Bloo Media we invite you to discover all the details of image search, from what Visual Search is, to how it influences SEO, its advantages and the main tools that allow users to search by image online.

What is Visual Search?

Visual Search is the process by which a search is carried out by uploading an image , using both artificial intelligence and Machine Learning. In other words, it is the process of finding a product or content through a photo.

visual-search-what-is

The main objective of Visual Search is to find content with characteristics similar to the uploaded image, analyzing all the components of the visual image. A technology very similar to that used on some platforms such as Facebook to recognize the faces of friends.

Before explaining how Visual Search works, it is necessary that you distinguish the different types of visual search that exist:

• Visual search by keywords : the user when carrying out a search places a keyword in the search engine and it provides images related to that keyword.
• Reverse search : the user enters an image and the search engine provides related images.
• Detailed search : it is the type of search in which the device used is capable of identifying the different elements or objects of the photograph to offer the user similar content. An option capable of increasing conversions considerably.

How does Visual Search work?

These visual searches work thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms that focus their efforts on differentiating the different elements that make up an image . Some of those elements are: the color of the image, the shape of the image, the size, and so on. Once these elements are identified, it compares them with all the images indexed in its databases, in order to offer similar content to users.

Visual Search is a process that tries to imitate the functioning of our brain . And although it is close to leaps and bounds and has come a long way in recent years, obtaining maximum precision in this process is complex because it requires the computer to be able to prioritize between the elements mentioned above, that is: between size, color and the form. And, what is the most important to identify an image and offer similar results?

Currently, the precision of Visual Search is far from the precision in traditional text search, however, it is expected that this type of search will continue to advance a lot, becoming at some point as precise as text searches.

Advantages of Visual Search

Next, we detail the main advantages of Visual Search :

1. Accelerate the purchase process

Undoubtedly, Visual Search is capable of speeding up the purchase processes since it is very fast for users who perform searches, which makes any process easier.

2. Improve the user experience

It improves the user experience by simplifying the search process. Searching for a product from text can become an arduous task, however, performing a search through images is a simpler and shorter process, and therefore increases user satisfaction.

3. Attract potential audiences

Pinterest has shown that visual searches have a great acceptance among the audience and that they are able to attract potential audiences. In just 6 months, after the launch of its tool, the platform managed to attract the attention of millions of users, attracted by visual searches.

traffic-by-visual-searches

4. Possibility of cross-selling

Visual Search is capable of providing any user with products that are related to the product they want, enhancing the possibility of cross-selling. For example: if a user is looking for running shoes, they can be offered related products such as running clothes, activity bracelets, etc.

5. Increase conversions

It is one of the main advantages for brands. Visual Search facilitates the purchase processes and improves the user experience, considerably increasing conversions and with it the benefits for e-commerce.

How does visual search influence SEO positioning?

Currently, Visual Search is a real challenge for SEO. With new technological advances, SEO optimization is more necessary than ever for the different search engines to correctly interpret our content in image format.

Until now, visual searches worked thanks to the optimization of images, titles and alt tags. Today search engines are able to index images and categorize them , taking into account the creation of structured data.

In the future, schema markup and structured data may be the only sources of text information that search engines crawl, so we recommend that you use metadata for images on your website.

1.Visual Search Tools

As we have mentioned before, Visual Search never ceases to surprise us with new advances. Some of these advances are related to the launch of new visual search tools, Visual Search applications like the ones listed below:

2.Google Lens

It could not be otherwise. Google, the internet giant, wants your Smartphone to become a visual search engine. His idea is that users only have to press an icon and take a photo.

In addition, the tool will have a feature that will surely sound familiar to you, similar to that of Pinterest Lens, a feature that offers all users a link so that they can purchase the products they are looking for. More facilities for the user and more facilities to increase conversions!

3.Bing Visual Search

Bing is not far behind. And it is that, it has developed an intelligent visual search process based on the web and on photographs obtained from the camera.

It is clear that it is not innovative at all, but it is a very useful tool that demonstrates the improvements in Visual Search that it has made in recent times, improvements such as selecting parts of the image or a specific area to filter the searches that the user performs by sharpening considerably said search.

4.Pinterest Lens

Pinterest, the visual social network par excellence, also decided to launch a Visual Search tool called Pinterest Lens, thus investing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

5.pinterest-lens

How does it work? Easy! The user only has to focus on an object from his mobile camera and Pinterest Lens will immediately provide him with different ideas related to the focused objective. It can also be done with photos from the gallery, and even with a Pincode.

From Bloo Media we tell you through our blog the latest trends in digital marketing so that you can apply them and thus increase the benefits of your company. If you need more information or a specialized digital marketing team, contact our team.