New ways to search for products on Google
Miguel Nicolás
28/10/2021
-
Believe it or not, there are still ways to search for products on Google that not everyone knows about, but that are used more than you think.
-
-
Google's search engine is always evolving, so they study in detail the trends of users and the way they interact with them. In fact, all the changes we see are the result of a thorough study of the user experience and their motivations.Let's take a closer look at these new ways of searching for products on Google and reflect on why they are important for our eCommerce.
-
Intelligent searches
-
If there is one thing these new search formats have in common, it is that they have evolved, they have become more powerful and, to do so, they have used Artificial Intelligence, something that Google has been working on for many years.If we talk about the search that we could call "standard", BERT was the first significant step and then came MUM to show that open neural networks are the way to grow.
-
Searching with and without screen
-
The transformation that is happening, progressively and silently, affects the entire Google ecosystem in a transversal way. It is no longer a question of desktop or mobile first, or images or voice. Everything is driven by these core algorithms.
-
-
The reality of search engines goes through the popularization of other types of interactions with search engines. With technological advances, users have begun to use their devices to search by voice (in many cases without the need to use a screen) or the opposite: through searches based on the visual aspect, specifically images.
-
Voice search
-
We talked at length about voice search in a post some time ago. What we predicted was not misguided. Thanks to devices and virtual assistants, users are making more and more queries on the web through voice commands. In fact, 27% of queries recorded by Google from cell phones are already made in this way.
-
-
From the SEO point of view, this "forces" us to rethink our search intentions and articulate the content we create and position differently. Essentially, we have to answer questions that may be more complex semantically, more long tail (if we reduce it to keywords)
-
Image search
-
It is not that searching for images in Google is something new. For many, many years this functionality has been incorporated, even the reverse search by uploading an image (or taking it directly from the URL of a website) is also something that we are more than accustomed to using as users.But when Artificial Intelligence comes into play, we can say that a new way of searching has been created, much more sophisticated and focused on selling products. You may remember this article about Google Lens.We see how, in Google Images result sheets, under Google Shopping ads, many photos are already labeled as products with an overprinted icon in the lower left corner.Even in those images that do not appear with the product label, the user can activate the lens option on their device by tapping the square viewer icon at the top right.In this way, the system will be able to search for similar images which, in many cases, are images corresponding to product cards that can be accessed directly from the search engine.
-
-
You should be careful with some SEO basics for images like:
- The dimensions and weight of them to ensure a reasonable loading time.
- The format, which is increasingly important in SEO.
- Use file names that provide context and keywords (better polo-fred-perry-blue.jpg than DSC12223423.jpg).
- The same in the case of meta tagging. The alt attribute is very important.
- If it is appropriate and fits your design, captions are another good resource.
- It is always better to use your own photos rather than the manufacturer's or, let alone, stock ones.
- Structured image data is another good resource, and do not forget to create specific image sitemaps.
-
The importance of adapting to new forms of search
-
What are we getting at with all this? If you continue to do SEO based only on keywords as it was done a decade ago, the results you are going to get are going to be much worse for your eCommerce.Even in the case that you are nailing it with your strategy, and you have an ideal positioning for many words... you are giving up a part of the cake that can be very appetizing!We especially encourage you to work on those complex search intents that serve to solve queries as they are asked by voice and, even more, to work on image SEO.
-
Are you going to let these new ways of searching for products on Google get away from you? Times change, and you have to adapt to them in order not to be left behind.
-
Images | Unsplash, Google.