Search Optimization for Google’s Search By Images
Google recently announced the ability to use images, instead of words, to conduct searches. This lets users drag and drop images into the search box (currently only on Chrome and Firefox) to find results. Google then interprets the image and tells you what it is (if possible) and can help you find other similar images, or more information about the subject of the image.
Although this is a new feature for desktop searches, it combines two technologies that Google has already been using: Image Swirl and Google Goggles. Image Swirl helps users find images based on a common set of attributes. This is, of course, just a user-friendly interface built on top of the real technology which is finding and categorizing images in a relational way.
The second technology is Google Goggles. This is an application for Android™ smartphones that allows users to take a picture of something and then conduct a search using that picture. Google Goggles is much more advanced than Image Swirl because it scans each image and attempts to determine what is in the image. For example, if you take a picture of a barcode, it will take you to results pertaining to whatever product the barcode was on, whereas if you take a picture of a landmark, it will give you information about that landmark.
What this Means for SEO
Google Image Search will not drastically impact current SEO efforts, but it will reprioritize many of the best practices. Specifically, SEO professionals will need to:
- Use images in content more frequently ( everyone loves pictures!)
- Properly name all images. Names like “A7808.jpg” will no longer be acceptable.
- Use HTML Tags to properly tag your image, including alt tags that describe the image.
- Use captions, which are increasingly useful either separately or through HTML Image tags
- Use Image Sitemaps
- Not steal or use images without permission
In other words, this really just reinforces existing best practices, but also has the potential to provide additional benefit for doing so.
In the long term, it will be interesting to see if this has any impact on keyword targeting since Google image search tries to associate a keyword search with your image (and also find visually similar images) it will be interesting to see how this changes keyword targeting over the long run.
The other major change will be how SEO professionals use Search by Image to find information themselves. In addition to identifying image scrapers (websites who steal copyrighted images without permission), there are a few creative ways you can use this to find specific information.
- Find coverage of your company that didn’t result in a link by searching with your CEO’s stock image
- Get background on influencers by using their standard photo or image to see where else they are involved
- Find competitors or potential link resources by searching using industry relevant photos (for example, if you are a travel site you can search common attractions to find local resources relevant to those attraction).
In short, Google Search by Image is not an SEO game changer. There are not long-tail versus short-tail images, and it is uncertain the impact this will have on website conversion rate optimization. It is still new however, and as the service grows and matures it will be interesting to see the long term impact it creates. But it does offer a few unique benefits and in some situations it may be able to provide a unique boost.
