Google Lens for SEO optimization in e-commerce
You may be devoting time and resources to improving your ecommerce search game with SEO tools and cutting-edge digital marketing, but are you prepared for Google Lens?
Google Lens and Pinterest Lens are leading the way with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and real-world visual search choices that improve a user’s website experience and direct a target audience to the source (or sources).
Similar to how keywords and keyword research began shifting to full questions (thanks to voice assistants like Alexa and Suri, for example, ‘where can I find the best grocery delivery service?’ rather than ‘grocery delivery service,’ real-world search options based on a visual image are influencing search results for businesses everywhere. All you have to do now is point your smartphone’s camera and Google will handle the rest.
Google Lens Makes Searching Easier
Google wants to be your go-to ecommerce website, and Google Lens is their way of competing with Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
Google Lens is an artificial intelligence-enhanced version of Google’s reverse image search. Based on Google’s highly refined search intent algorithms, it employs augmented reality and machine learning to discover the most relevant responses to each of numerous alternatives. Google searches are becoming more difficult as new AI developments, such as the multitask unified model, or MUM, are used, necessitating a greater understanding and use of SEO tactics to ensure success.
How Does Google Lens Work?
To use Google Lens’ incredible capabilities, aim or point at an object and pick the Google app on your mobile device (it’s embedded for Android phones or there’s a camera on the search line for iPhones) or, for laptops and computers, right-click in Chrome and select ‘Search photos with Google Lens.’ You can now select from the following options:
Google Translate – The company’s excellent translation program has been integrated straight into Google Lens. It will now recognize the language and translate text from whatever you point it at, whether it’s a sign, a menu, a book, or a computer screen.
Search – If you search for an image, you will get the same results as if you had typed it in. Recognize landmarks or flora/fauna. When you point your camera towards a landmark, Google Lens will tell you not only what it is but also some historical information about it. If you point your camera towards a dog or a tree, your image search will identify the breed of dog or the type of plant. There will be no more typing in descriptions.
Homework – The Homework setting allows you to hover your camera over a math equation or a science problem to get a Steps-to-Solve instruction.
Text — Google Lens can copy text from any source, such as a book, a computer screen, a billboard, or an image, and send it to your computer’s clipboard, where it may be pasted into a document, email, or spreadsheet (or you can have it read aloud if you prefer).
Dining – Take a picture of food, and Google Lens can show you recipes for the dish as well as restaurants where you may eat it.
Shopping – When you discover the perfect pair of shoes, you no longer have to type a lengthy description into Google and hope for the best — ‘black leather pumps with a 4-inch heel.’ Instead, you simply tap and hold the image while Google Lens discovers similar things that you may link to and purchase right away. Google Lens will also provide you with styling suggestions for what to wear with your black shoes as well as suggestions for where you can wear them.
So, with all that power to find your products fast, how can you ensure your website is capitalizing in every manner possible?
How to Google Lens-Optimize Your Ecommerce Website
First, ensure that your product photos appear in Google Shopping. Through a Google Merchant Center account, Google provides free product listings. Once you’ve created an account, you can create a product feed and upload your products to appear in Google’s search results. Customers can also purchase things, and Google will direct them to your checkout procedure.
Ensure that all product photos and descriptions on your website (or other online selling platforms, such as Shopify) reflect the following improvements:
Provide a fantastic user experience – Make sure your photos (and image URLs) have appropriate context and relevant content, with the most significant image near the top of the page. Make your product information as accessible as possible so that everyone has access to it. Also, make sure your site’s overall health is good by guaranteeing mobile-friendly replies.
Add Alt Image Tags using HTML or your content management system, such as WordPress, and be sure to utilize relevant keywords or phrases. Also, make sure your page title tag and meta description comply with Google’s rules, as this is the information/images utilized to build snippets for search engine results pages (SERPs).
Include EXIF data, which contains more detailed information about your photo image, such as the time and date it was taken, the camera used, and so on. Google uses this information to determine the relevance of photos and articles/blogs/pages.
Include structured data markup (using schema.org terminology) to assist Google in understanding your content and images. A recipe page, for example, might have structured data (in HTML code) for the type of page, recipe name, author, prep time, and date published. It will also offer a synopsis of the content and visuals.
This assists Google in indexing the page, providing rich results that are highlighted on SERPs, and comprehending photos for Google Lens.
To boost performance, provide fast loading times with high-quality photographs that have strong image optimization and video compression. Google Lens will prioritize the best results, so make sure your photographs are perfect.
Choose high-quality, high-resolution photos and file formats such as.PNG or.JPG. If your photographs are blurry or out of focus, replace them right away.
Optimize for Pinterest Lenses as well!
Don’t forget to optimize your brand for Pinterest Lenses as well. Pinterest has over 460 million monthly active users and is still growing. Furthermore, they are putting a lot of emphasis on their ‘visual discovery technology,’ which is similar to Google Lens.
Make sure you have a Pinterest business account before you begin using Pinterest Lens. Once you’re there, make sure to sign up for the Verified Merchant Program and then upload your products to Pinterest utilizing the ‘Catalogs’ option.
Many of the same recommendations apply to optimizing your photographs. To be found in Pinterest Lens, optimize your images by adding Alt Image Text and making sure they are high quality, load quickly, and include EXIF information if feasible.
2022 SEO Trends for Ecommerce Success
If you’re planning an SEO strategy for an ecommerce firm in 2022, you’ll want to make sure that customers can locate your website and products. The days of users directly finding your site by putting information into a search bar are quickly passing.
Today, mobile searches account up the lion’s share of all searches (more than 64 percent in 2022), with a preference for voice or image searches. That means staying on top of marketing in direct search channels like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens is more important than ever.
Expect the number of marketing influencers to expand tremendously in the future. Every time your product is shot and posted on the internet, there is another opportunity for consumers to use Google Lens to collect information about it.
In 2022, don’t leave site optimization to chance.
Every time you add a picture to a product page, you have the chance to fine-tune your SEO strategy and place your ecommerce business in search results. That is where your prospective clients will find you.
Scayver Graphix has vast experience with SEO strategy and implementation for ecommerce enterprises. Our industry-leading SEO team is well-versed in SEO best practices, as well as forward-thinking digital marketing and website design and development.