How to Improve your Products Visual Search

This blog was originally posted in 2019.

As humans, 90% of the information we take in is visual – and what we see, we process in 13 milliseconds! So it makes sense that the next step in search trends is to be able to find products using visual search.

We’ve long said that visual search has the potential to revolutionise how consumers find and buy products. Imagine you’re shopping for a black coat with gold buttons. There are thousands online – but how do you find and compare without visiting sites individually? This is where visual search comes into its own.

Presented with an array of relevant results, you can quickly view those that best fit your requirements – rather than clicking back and forth between various retail sites listed in Google search results. This is just one of the reasons why 62% of Millennials prefer to search visually.

And, while consumer goods are an obvious application, if you’re selling services visual search could work in your favour too. If you’re a consultant, optimising your team’s images gives you another avenue through which potential clients can find you.

Getting the basics right

So, how do you ensure your products (and services!) are well represented in visual search results?

Global e-commerce platform, Shopify, has a fantastic list of 10 tips for image optimisation (you can read the full list here) – the top three being:

·         Name your images descriptively and in plain language.

·         Optimize your alt attributes carefully.

·         Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely.

In addition, we recommend ensuring that your images are owned (rather than stock) and of a good composition and quality (though beware of file size).

Trend forecast

As well as Google search, there are a number of other visual avenues to explore.

One of the ways your business could utilise visual search is through a ready-made search engine like Pinterest Lens. Pinterest Lens is one of the most popular, with over 600 million visual searches on the server every month. Pinterest Lens allows users to take a photo and then find related Pins (images) on Pinterest. Therefore if your business were to advertise on Pinterest, your products would appear when users do visual searches.

Image-based ads on Pinterest have a remarkable 8.5 per cent conversion rate. This is because the search to purchase process is significantly shorter for customers. It is a lot easier for customers to convert a mental picture to an actual product on their screen. The easier it is for a customer to find the product they’re looking for, the less friction there is in achieving a sale.

Other big names in tech are also beginning to become interested in visual search – Facebook, for example, has bought the visual search startup ‘GrokStyle.’

A final bit of food for thought…

While visual search is not expected to replace text-based searches, it will inevitably change the way customers find and purchase products. By 2021, those that have websites which support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%.

As more companies are beginning to gain interest in visual search, the technology will only become more advanced and user-friendly. Planning for this growing market is a must for businesses wishing to stay relevant.

So, no matter whether you’re selling clothing or consulting services, ensuring your website contains high quality, well-optimised images is important to your digital visibility for the future.

Want to take the guess-work out of digital marketing? Enquire with us today at Matter Aency, we’ve got you covered.