Visual Search Explained: How It’s Changing Search Behavior

The way we search is going through an advanced era that is not only limited to typing keywords and text-based queries. Today, visual search is completely changing the search dynamics by offering a more personalized and easier way to conduct searches using images instead of keywords.

Let’s say you saw a pair of sneakers walking down the road. You don’t know the brand name or model, but you want those shoes. So instead of typing white sneakers with yellow strips, just snap the picture from your smartphone and get instant, fast, and relevant results.

According to a report, 22% of the people between the ages of 16 to 34 are most likely to purchase through visual search as compared to 17% of the people between the ages of 35 to 54.

Visual search is not just a trend; it’s the future of search, driven by Artificial Intelligence, that is reshaping how consumers discover information, products, and services online.

From Pictures to Answers: How Visual Search Is Enhancing Search Behavior

Visual search uses Artificial Intelligence and computer vision to enable users to search for products using images instead of text or typing keywords. It allows users to upload an image or take a real-time snapshot and upload it in the search query to learn more about what’s in the image or find a product included in the image.

Visual Search works when a search engine receives an image, recognizes it, and hunts down other images online that are either exactly or nearly similar. The results may carry images of the object itself or an object partly consisting of that object. If one searches for a product, information on product names, pricing, and product page links could also be made available.

Few engines can also use Artificial Intelligence to provide search based on image understanding and image comparison.

A visual search engine incorporates machine learning by learning the content of an image and then trying to find contextual examples; computer vision might be yet another approach to facilitating image visualization for such engines.

How Visual Search Works?

Image Capture or Upload:

• Users take a picture or upload an image.

Image Preprocessing:

• The image is resized, normalized, and denoised before being analyzed.

Feature Extraction by CNNs:

• CNNs identify image features such as colors, textures, object shapes, and spatial hierarchies.

Embedding and Vectorization:

• The features are converted into embedding vectors, which allow fast comparisons based on nearest search algorithms.

Similarity Matching:

• Using vector proximity, the system looks for visually similar items in the database.

Rendering of Results:

• Product metadata, prices, or a clickable link shows a visual grid of the closest matches.

Why Visual Search Is Proving To Be A Game Changer

Visual search tools can identify not only product types (categories) but also additional information, such as the physical properties (e.g., shape, texture, background, etc.) of the items to be searched for. This facilitates retailers to get search results much more closely aligned with what shoppers are looking for, even if fine detailed analysis is needed on the items.

Some of the main reasons why visual or image-based search is gaining importance include:

1. Consistently Shifting Consumer Behavior

Today, people want instant results, especially Gen Z and millennials, who prefer visual over text content. According to a report, more than 50% of consumers find visual information more important than text while shopping online. Moreover, with most people shopping from their smartphones, visual searches have become an important element that influences consumer buying decisions.

2. Enhanced User Experience

Visual search lets customers search online hassle-free by granting an immediate image upload. Marketers should make efforts to link users directly with what they want, whether information, a product, or anything else.

• This leads to a short customer journey via a smooth experience. It has also been considered to make the physical shopping experience better, with 61% of consumers believing visual search has improved their in-store browsing.

3. Increased Engagement and Conversion Rates

Optimizing for various visual search tools could increase engagement and conversion in some ways. For example, downloading an application will enable you to get visibility to the concerned audience utilizing a search experience based on visual means, increasing engagement from such audiences.

• Simultaneously, it will help connect the consumer directly to the product they want, thus aiding conversion.

4. Instant Gratification and Micro-Moments

Visual search caters to micro-moments—instances where users want immediate results. Mobile users, in particular, prefer the convenience of snapping a picture and getting results instantly, creating a smoother path to conversion.

How Ecommerce Can Use Visual Search For Better SEO

Visual search is becoming a new SEO frontier, helping marketers and consumers connect more intuitively through images rather than text-based queries. Here are some of the tips to use visual search for better SEO:

1. Image SEO Beyond Traditional Search

Traditional SEO exclusively focused on alt text and file names, but visual search brings a new level of image optimization that offers a more personalized and to-the-point approach to search queries.

• Provide High-resolution images from several angles showing distinguishing product features.
• Clean backgrounds help AI models identify objects more quickly.
• Color contrast to make sure key visual features stand out.
• Use contextual images for products to show their use in the natural environment.

2. Visual Metadata Enhancement

Behind all successful visual search results is a strong metadata set. Trend-worthy marketers are now ushering in:

• Use schema markup with intricate descriptions of visual product features.
• Tagging of visual features that resonate well with frequent visual search behaviors.
• Image clustering that ties products with visible similarities across catalogs.

3. Try Out UGC

Encourage UGC on social media to automate the generation of your content. A UGC example is running a contest wherein users are rewarded for submitting creative ideas on how to use products.

4. Tag All Your Products

Use as many relevant tags as possible to link images with their respective product page. Shoppable images thus can go a step further and provide a more effortless ecommerce environment for the customers by allowing them to click on a photo to proceed directly to the checkout page.

5. Get Contextual Relevance

Visual search tools require contextual relevance so that they can understand and render the images they index for visual search.

• Keep all text around your images relevant, including body content and captions, as a visual search engine will take this as evidence that the images are pertinent to their accompanying content.
• Furthermore, ensure the page on which your image appears has some high-quality content that could propel your SEO effort an even greater distance.

6. Upload an Image Sitemap

Alongside XML or HTML sitemaps, the creation of an image sitemap is one worth considering. This will foster the ability of visual search engines to find your images and index them, thereby broadening your chances of being searched for online.

Leading Players in Visual Search Discovery

With Visual Search on the rise, some of the key players have already established a strong position offering a combination of AI and complex algorithms to understand, recognize, and compare images when bringing back results to users.

1. Google Lens:

No surprises, Google is leading the way in visual search discovery with Google Lens. It uses the advanced combination of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Computer Vision to enables users to search directly for what they see. Users just need to upload the image, the Google AI will look for objects  text, landmarks, products, and other items using any image.

• Real-time text translation,  for example, if one tries to translate a sign in a foreign country
• Scanning QR and barcodes.
• Links to shopping for products present in the images.

2. Amazon StyleSnap

StyleSnap is accessible through the Amazon app to help users find fashion products based on visual search.

For example, an image of a dress worn by somebody will cause StyleSnap to bring up recommendations for that precise dress or kinds of dresses with similar features.

• Allows matching of clothes and accessories with an uploaded image and Amazon products based on its database.
• Gives suggestions on products that have the same or similar styles.

3. Pinterest Lens

Pinterest AI lens takes visual discovery to the next level by targeting consumers interested in lifestyle, home decor, and fashion, enabling them to upload images to get ideas or inspiration.

• Recognizes the object and recommends the same or similar ones.
• An inspiring idea for everything from fashion to interior home decor, or even recipes
• Redirects to millions of images in the Pinterest database.
• Try On allows users to “try on” makeup on their own images or place AR versions of products in their physical spaces for previewing.

4. Bing Visual Search

Bing Visual Search is more like a Google Lens powered by Bing. It has advanced image recognition capabilities that help your uploaded images match similar ones in Bing’s database.

• Shopping Links and price comparisons.
• Information about locations, products, and objects in images.

Conclusion

The shift towards visual search brings a major transformation in how audiences discover and consume products. Therefore, it becomes very important for the brands to design their digital strategies to remain visible in a world where consumers increasingly prefer to search with their cameras rather than their keyboards. Visual search is the future of e-commerce, offering a more intuitive approach for brands ready to be discovered in this new visual-first ecosystem.

To rank better in Visual Search for utmost visibility, it’s always better to partner with an expert digital marketing agency like ResultFirst. With years of experience in providing advanced digital marketing and SEO services, we help your brand stay ahead by optimizing for visual discovery, driving more engagement, discoverability, and conversions.

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