If I say the word “SEO” your mind may instantly think of articles and websites with keywords, but Did you know that images can be the key to increasing traffic to your page? Users are increasingly asking for searches and their results to be visual and search engines are adapting to this new trend with image recognition tools such as Google Lens.
In this article we tell you what this application consists of, how it is used and how to optimize your images to boost your web traffic and not get stagnant in the face of new times.
What is visual search?
As users, we are used to searching on the Internet by entering what interests us in text format. Visual search, on the other hand, It would be one that is based on uploading an image so that the search engine can analyze it and show us related content..
Visual searches work using artificial intelligence, which is capable of scanning the photo uploaded by the user, understanding its content and offering results that the user may be looking for.
The main advantage of this type of search is that It is perfect when the public is looking for specific products instead of generic ones.. That is, imagine that a potential client has seen a bag on social media that has caught their attention and no matter how much they try to search for it on the internet, entering the brand, style or color, they cannot find the exact piece. With visual search it will be easier for search engines to detect the exact item that the user is looking for and offer them the results they want.
Before continuing, It is important that you do not confuse the term visual search (which we are talking about in this post) with image search. The latter is what can be done in the Google Images tab by entering keywords in the search engine in order to obtain related photographs. The idea, therefore, of visual search is that the user does not have to type any type of word.
What is Google Lens?
Google Lens is the Google application that allows visual searches. Thanks to the image recognition technology of this tool, the public can search by simply uploading an image they already have saved on their device or a snapshot they take at the moment. This is the highlight you can do with Google Lens artificial intelligence and its visual search:
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Search products or styles: As we have already said before, if you are interested in a product that you see on social networks or physically, you can upload a photo of it and Google will show you what it is, in addition to all its characteristics and where to buy it. It will also show you related products with the same style. This way, if the item you are looking for is not available, you will be able to find other similar ones that may also convince you.
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Translate texts: Google Lens can also be the perfect travel companion, since with a simple image it can translate texts in real time into more than 100 languages.
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Find help with your educational tasks: Google Lens can give you the solution to math, physics or chemistry problems. You just have to capture in an image the formula that you can’t solve and the application will give you both the step by step and the final solution.
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Identify animals and plants: Flora and fauna lovers find Google Lens a great ally when it comes to learning about species they did not know, since by entering a simple image, the platform is able to offer you the name and a large amount of information.
If you want to try this Google tool for yourself, we leave you here the link so you can put it to the test. However, it is very possible that your mobile phone already has it integrated.
How you can use Google Lens
Using Google Lens is very simple. Here we leave you the step by step so you can carry out your own searches in this app:
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Open the application Google Lens.
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You will see that different options appear at the bottom of the screen:
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Translate: convert texts into your language simply by pointing at them or uploading an image already saved on your device to the platform:
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Text: With this option you can copy handwritten text or text from an image to your device. In addition, you can also listen to said text in your language or a foreign language, share it, download it or open it in Google Translate.
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Look for: This is the most generic search option that will allow you to find anything, whether your search has a commercial purpose or if you simply want to obtain information about something.
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Homework: This tab is intended to resolve school doubts, whether they are mathematics or physics problems (as we have said before) or questions about any other subject. You simply have to photograph the wording of the question you want to answer or the formula of the problem you want to solve so that Google can do it for you.
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Shopping: the ideal tab when you want to know where to buy a product or something similar. Google Lens will show you the online stores where you can find it.
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Sites: If you travel and want to have information about the specific place where you are or about the monument you are contemplating, you can also obtain it with a simple image, without needing to know the name.
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Meal: In this case you can upload the image of a dish and Google will tell you what it is.
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Select the one that best suits your search needs.
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Capture what you want Google Lens to do analyze by clicking the circle button in the center of the screen or by entering an image of your device by selecting the small box next to the circle button.
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Enjoy the search results.
How to make your products appear on Google Lens
For your products to appear as part of the Google Lens search result you must make sure they are on Google. And you can achieve this in two ways:
Adding products to Google Merchant Center is very simple and free, but if you are not interested in using it, you can resort to the second option, which consists of introducing code fragments to the HTML of your website. This will help Google better understand all the information on your page. To do this job, Google helps you with a few steps in this guide it has created, but if you use WordPress you can choose to download some plugins that allow you to do the same thing in a much simpler way. Regardless of the option you choose (plugin or code insertion with Google’s guide) It is recommended that you check that the search engine detects your products with this structured data testing tool.
Throughout this process, do not forget that SEO also exists in Google Lens, only in this case applied to images. Therefore, many of the image optimization rules for SEO You should also apply them on this occasion, such as:
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Upload an image with the appropriate size.
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Insert image tags and keywords.
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Use only high-quality photographs.
Below we explain in much more depth how to optimize them with 5 simple tricks.
5 practices to optimize images at the SEO level
Complete the textual description of your image
In the textual descriptions of your image you must make sure they appear the keywords. Also We advise you that these be present in the name of your files instead of the name they have by default.
Don’t forget to select the appropriate file type
The type of file in which you upload your images greatly influences the loading time of your website and, therefore, the quality of the user experience. Google supports a wide variety of formats (WebP, BMP, SVG, PNG, JPG and GIF) and each of them has its positives and negatives.
Use original images
We advise you that on your website or ecommerce always use your own images and try not to resort to image banks. Because? There is nothing wrong with that and, in fact, on these types of platforms there are very interesting photographs that can be perfect for your products. The problem is that stock images are often used on many websites and they will not allow you to achieve powerful SEO in the same way as an original image.
Upload multiple photos from different angles
When uploading product images to your website, Try to upload more than one and make sure they are different in terms of the angle from which they are taken. This will increase your chances of appearing as a search result, since Google Lens will be able to identify your product regardless of the angle that the user has chosen for the photograph.
Avoid objects that take center stage from the main article
Finally, it is important that you know that the detection of products is easier for artificial intelligence the more solitary they appear, that is, the fewer objects there are around them that could alter the analysis of the photograph. Therefore, we recommend that the products you upload appear with a white background.