Nearly every website uses some sort of imagery, whether it's a logo, an image of a product, or a photo of a currently promoted product. Images can play an important part in your SEO marketing campaign when they are properly optimized for SEM. Google’s image search capabilities are very useful, helping SEO companies get more exposure for their website by making it possible for images to be searched, just like their content.
What Is Google Image Search?
Image search is a capability of Google’s search engines. It gives you the ability to filter through all kinds of images that appear on various websites. An image search functions similarly to Google’s regular search, directed by keywords and queries entered into the search field.
After entering a query into the search field, users select the Image Search tab to see relevant photos, clip art, GIF's, and other images uploaded to the web. Images are served similarly to other content and based on keywords, optimization, and other SEM techniques used by SEO companies to keep their content (images included) most relevant.
How Image Search Works
Google image search works in multiple ways including text search, reverse image search, and search by image. Besides the standard text image search mentioned above, you can also reverse search to generate results similar to a selected image, using that image as a query to search for and deliver similar content. Additionally, search by image allows you to upload your own image into the search field for analysis to return related content.
Since all search depends on effective image labeling, SEO companies must pay attention to image optimization to ensure that images are served appropriately based on different search terms, keywords, and locations. These are steps commonly left out of SEO marketing, yet play a valuable role in increasing the relevance of your website for both image and content search.
Image Search Filters
One way Google facilitates image search is with search filters. Filters help narrow your search field based on image attributes that include various image sources, styles, dates, locations, and other relevant details. These filters have recently been expanded with Google’s growing focus on easier and more convenient mobile-first search. They now include filtering by latest uploads, image type (images, clip art, GIFs, etc.), colors, and search phrases to bring up additional related results.
Considering the many ways in which audiences can now fine-tune image searches, SEM must recognize this when optimizing website images. For SEO marketing purposes, labels should include as much relevant information as possible to help categorize images in each filter that comes up when a user searches a relevant term.
If you just assume that photos and other images simply enhance the look and appearance of your website, you should think again. Image search is another SEM technique that helps SEO companies get greater exposure for a website. When users perform a search and your image comes up, your company’s relevance goes up.
Used correctly, image search is a useful SEO marketing tool that puts your graphics and images to work promoting your website, just like all of your other content!
