How Visual Search Can Improve SEO for Ecommerce Websites

Ecommerce businesses thrive on the excellent presentation and persuading power. When it comes to presenting your company’s core values to the larger audience, the most recommended mode is through strong images that depict the intent truly. Your visual marketing mix composed of images, videos and infographics should reflect your ecommerce business.

An optimized image brings the best search engine traffic to your ecommerce website. It is rightly said “A picture is worth a thousand words” as images capture attention instantly. The product specification is, of course, the core requirement for the product marketing, but a compelling image of the product optimized to capture hearts in a jiffy creates 50 percent more chances of the product getting sold.

Facts & Figures about Visual Search Optimization:

• Compared to text, our brain process images 60,000 times faster.
• Customers can still remember 65% of visual stimuli after three days while they recall just 10% of auditory stimuli.
• About 80% consumers are more likely to engage with content that constitutes appropriate images.
• Content with related images receives 94% more views than content without relevant images.
• 93% of consumers while making a purchase think that images are the most important deciding factor.

Images can create wonders. Human brains are conditioned to process images faster than words. That is why pictorial representation like flowcharts, tables and pie charts came into existence. Complex data can be represented effectively through images. The power of images is limitless and the key to success in ecommerce industry is to take advantage of the visual search engine.

Image search is considered as an essential part of the Google Search Network. But the nagging problem is the conversion of text to an image. When the query is in text form, the right images cannot be accurately found. On the other hand, visual search fetches most expected information by matching pixel by pixel detail. The results are often similar brands, colors, and styles. That makes life easy. Search engine optimization through visual search can help any industry to flourish.

After you implement visual search on your ecommerce website, make sure you monitor:

• Conversion rates
• Product views
• Click through rates
• Abandoned shopping carts
• Bounce rates
• Inbound links
• User Experience (UX)

Visual Search on Pinterest:

Visual search is not recent and this technology was being used by Zappos even before Google bought Like.com in 2010. But it is Pinterest that has speedily turned into the dwelling place for numerous online retailers. Pinterest is having more than 100 million monthly active users, a built-in “Buy” button, and it has “promoted pins” advertising unit. Pinterest has developed the extension of copious brands and confronted them to an audience that is completely new. It has also implemented a visual search feature which enables users to select the visual search icon present at the top of the screen and then select any object in an image. Pinterest automatically permeates through pins, displaying users the places where they can buy products like the one they liked.

Visually Similar Results on Pinterest

Making the customers visualize with examples of clothing ways or how their house can be decorated or otherwise use your products after buying them will assist the customers to ideate life.  For cross-merchandizing other products that go along with your main product, these images are valuable.

Magic of Visual Search:

The importance of the visual search on ecommerce site is needless to be explained. A decorator service which hosts quality images of its products and services is assured of winning clients through visual searches and also direct visitors to its site. A photograph similar to your portfolio photo says it all. This magic of visual search increases the marketing potential. A product is believed to be delivered when it is photographed and presented, rather than a review by the satisfied customer. The upcoming client gets the clear picture of what would be the final product like.

Optimize User Experience (UX):

Dumping information on a website takes you far away from being spotted. Beware of the amount of data that gets the attention of consumers. What the consumer needs to know is all that is expected out of a website. Balance the website with appropriate images and engaging texts to succeed. The focus should be on user experience to gain repeat business.

Consumer Buying Behavior:

Consumer buying decisions, their choices, attitude and preferences define buying behavior. For an ecommerce business, the more the consumers, the more the business. The key to attracting a customer is by presenting the true picture. The image of the product should reflect the quality of the product, texture, and intricacies. A well defined and optimized image fetches more business as most consumers prefer to buy the quality product when compared to a cheap product. When delivering a quality product forms a part of the core value of the company, then an evocative image with detail to quality gains prominence.

Time Saving Visual Search:

The internet is a crowded web inundated with information. To present the company’s uniqueness beyond the noise of the overflowing marketing advertisements is a challenge. A time-saving visual search provides the consumer to pay more attention to the product and its specifications. Ecommerce sites that save time by facilitating the consumer with apt responses for the visual search have an edge over other sites that are less captivating. The importance of time, which is precious, should be realized by the marketers of the ecommerce industry.

Responsiveness of the Website:

The success of the ecommerce site also depends on the responsiveness of the site. For example, a popular branded site is available for online purchase only through a specific gadget, then it lacks responsiveness. When it is available for use in all gadgets, that’s when it thrives market and captivates consumer.

Cut Out Cumbersome Steps:

Buying products through traditional search methods lead to a sequence of steps to be completed before you actually buy the product of choice. For example, signing up, account creation, personal information and lots more. By the time one gets to finish the series of steps, the desire to possess the product fades. That’s the sad reality. The visual search cuts out that cumbersome crap. The visual search directs you to the exact product you intend to buy. Makes shopping meaningful. An experience that could trigger repeated shopping as against the traditional text search methods.

Threat of Hitting a Dead End:

When consumers who intend to purchase your brand, but hit a dead end on-page, that is the consumers are unable to find the product they’re looking for, they decide to leave the website. Even when you don’t have the exact match available in stock, you can still cleverly execute a visual search program to display suitable replacement. Example: A matching color, style and size preference for a similar product have a possibility of a consumer choosing that product which is available in stock.

Specific Search Success:

Consumers who want to look for a specific product would be highly benefited by visual search. The success of specific search with the aid of visual search gives customer satisfaction.

Establish Identity:

Marketing the products in ecommerce business is the core. However, any industry should be able to sustain competition. In that aspect, what makes you distinct from the competitors in your field? The identity you establish takes you a long way. Establishing identity is not a day’s job. It is built over a period of time. Extensive research, competitive planning, and website design to optimize visual search would come in handy. Reputation and goodwill earned bring loyal customers who would stay with you for lifelong.