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“Image is Everything” with Visual Search
By Kurt Krejny | July 16, 2008
We’ve all heard the clichés about pictures and images through various commercials, songs, and stories. “Image is everything”, “Picture perfect”, “Every picture tells a story”, and “A picture is worth a thousand words” are some of the more common clichés we all know and love. In today’s fast-paced Internet world, the visual representation of a company through its website has become increasingly important as new sites appear by the thousands each day.
As new websites rapidly appear, new search technologies are also emerging to help guide people to what they are looking for on the web. Social search, human-edited search, video search, and blog search are a few of the technologies which are continually refined with search experience and ease of usability as the goal.
Visual search is one such emerging technology which simplifies search preferences for a visually oriented audience. A few visual search engines at the forefront today include Searchme, Redzee, and Viewzi.
With Internet users demanding more and more visual media on the web, it poses a challenge to grab audience members’ attention and make a first impression that sticks in their mind.
Below are some items to consider that will help prepare your website for the new wave of visual search.
“Image is everything”
Andre Agassi used to say “Image is everything” in the Canon Rebel camera commercials. More than fifteen years later that slogan holds true with the new emerging visual search technology.
If visual impact encourages clicks, and clicks are part of the visual search rankings, then it is crucial that your site stand out and appeal to your intended audience.
How will your site visually stand out from the search competition? Hopefully not like a young Agassi from 1990 transported to the present day!
“Every picture tells a story”
With visual search your webpages will be represented as pictures. Will the searcher be able to tell what your site is about and determine if it is relevant to their search as they scroll through the results? An eye-catching graphic can help tell a narrative about your website. Consider the idea that your audience may relate better to a webpage with an image of a person or people. Graphical icons representing sections of your website can also help tell a story.
In visual search engines like Searchme, your website is defined by categories. Ask yourself: What categories most apply to your website? Make sure your content supports major themes and categories that are relevant to your search audience.
A search for “graphic design” on Searchme yields the following categories: Web Development, Advertising & Marketing, Software, Printing Services, and Photography.
If you are a design firm specializing in those services and more, you better be sure your website reflects them. Also, if your design style is anything similar to Rod Stewart’s album cover “Every Picture Tells a Story”, then you might have some problems getting the searcher’s attention!
“Picture perfect”
Companies that spend a lot of time and money on graphic design, website usability testing and robust analytics can see a great return in leads or sales. However, big design improvements do not always require a big budget. Quality web designers and developers can be quite affordable if you have a vision for your company website and provide them content necessary to build a solid foundation. Taking the time to understand how your design can affect the user experience on your site is crucial. A near perfect design can take years to achieve, so don’t settle on your first design as the final design.
Your website’s adherence to web design best practices from the start can determine your success. Focusing on proven design practices can save you time and money in the long run. Here are a few of the many best practices for website design:
- Web-safe colors
- Web browsers
- Screen resolution
- Readable fonts
- Contrast (navigation and body copy)
- Attractive images
- Rule of thirds
- White space
- Calls-to-action above the fold
- Consistent navigation
- Tasteful advertising
If you think a perfect website can be created overnight, think again. It has taken Jennifer Aniston years to perfect her image after starring in 1997’s “Picture Perfect”. Countless TV and movies appearances have won her many prestigious awards and accolades. Aniston’s hard work and willingness to adapt her image lend to her lengthy entertainment career.
“A picture is worth a thousand words”
In visual search a picture can be worth a thousand words if it entices clicks and drives quality traffic to your site. However, a website that doesn’t have the right words to please the algorithms does not stand a chance of getting the top rankings.
Search engine optimization will still play an important role in rankings for visual search. Quality content that is relevant to your intended audience is imperative. The best design in the world is worthless in visual search if it doesn’t have excellent content or quality inbound links.
Paint a picture
What picture will you paint with your website design? You’ve spent years perfecting your design and have played your cards right with organic SEO, so what is next? Taking a step back to review your design and analytics with the goal to refine your “image” will help capture more searchers and satisfy their needs. Settling on mediocrity with good design and SEO can leave your website choking on the dust left behind from competitors racing to the top of the search results.
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July 21st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Nice way to herald the next wave of searching: the kingdom of images. Visual presentation and aesthetics in general seem to playing a large factor in how websites are going to be received and found in the years to come. Maybe the growing visual emphasis in search (and videos/images in major SERPs) is going to bring us closer to the predicted next level of the semantic web.