SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is focused on words, text. Since Google owns 70% of the search market, and it’s 45 main competitors own the rest. Except for about 1% (according to Hitwise) which belongs to the Visual Search engines. So why fret over 1% of the overall search market? It is more than likely that Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others will begin to incorporate some form of Visual Search into their algorithms and results. This can be partially seen in Googles image, video and news searches. So why does it matter?
To begin with, one needs to understand Visual Search. Originally, it was searching for images based on the tags participants placed on the images. But today, it has evolved to presenting search results in a more intuitive, visual way, such as clouds and image maps. Examples can be seen of this at Kartoo (visual maps), Quintura (cloud maps) and Searchme (like iTunes album cover search.) People respond better to Visual Search and it reduces wasted time as people can see the page in advance. This is similar to the Snap application on seeing a page inside Googles search results before you visit. Visual Search is simply an alternative to sifting through pages of text and making a judgement call on what link to click.
The challenge with Visual Search is that now it will not be just about SEO for text, but design will play an even more vital role. If you had 2.5 seconds to get viewers to stay when they landed on your page, now they don’t even have to land on your page to make a decision on whether or not to even visit. Designers will now have to work even closer with wordsmiths to optimize pages. For SEO providers, this presents a new set of challenges and opportunities. For designers, it certainly sets a new benchmark in expectations.
Granted, it will be a while before this issue becomes more significant to business and marketers. But it is evolving, and all it takes is one of the larger search companies to buy a smaller one and for a few thousand participants to start sharing and moving outside the Google or Yahoo! box of search thinking. This will happen.