Google’s John Mueller answered the question of how Google’s new Google Lens multiple search affects SEO. How Google Lens multisearch affects the practice of optimizing for search engines is a good question and John gave a thoughtful answer.
John Mueller talking about SEO and Multisearch
Google Multisearch
Google Lens is an app available for Android and Apple iOS devices.
The Google Lens app (available for both Android and Apple iOS devices) provides a way to search with the camera and perform tasks such as translating text, identifying plants, insects, and animals, finding information about places, and other similar functions.
Google Multisearch is a new way to search with the Google Lens app, using text and images at the same time.
The official Google Lens page on Google Play lists these features for the app:
“SCAN AND TRANSLATE TEXT
Translate the words you see, save a business card to your contacts, add events to your calendar from a poster, and copy and paste complicated codes or long paragraphs to your phone to save time. IDENTIFY PLANTS AND ANIMALS
Find out what plant is in your friend’s apartment or what kind of dog you saw at the park. EXPLORE THE PLACES AROUND YOU
Identify and learn about landmarks, restaurants and storefronts. Check out ratings, hours of operation, historical facts and more. FIND THE LOOK YOU LIKE
See a dress that catches your eye? Or a perfect chair for your living room? Find similar clothing, furniture and home decor that you love. KNOW WHAT TO ORDER
See popular dishes on a restaurant’s menu based on Google Maps reviews. SCAN CODES
Quickly scan QR codes and barcodes.”
The multisearch feature was announced on April 7, 2022 as a beta feature. In general, beta means that something is still being developed and tested, but has reached a point where it is stable enough to use.
Google stated that the multi search feature uses AI and they are still exploring the integration of the MUM algorithm.
Google’s MUM algorithm is a powerful technology that answers complex questions with the ability to use audio, video, images and text, and returns the answer using language-independent information.
Using the Google Lens app, a user can take a photo and swipe up to access the “Add to your search” button that opens a form to add text.
Screenshot of Google Lens in multi search mode
Searching with an image can be thought of as an exact search for what’s in the image, as an exact search.
Searching with an image plus text allows the user to refine their search, such as searching for what is in the image but with a different color.
Google’s announcement of the new multisearch used the following examples of search refinements:
“Take a screenshot of an elegant orange dress and add the query ‘green’ to find it in another color Take a picture of your dining room set and add the query ‘coffee table’ to find a matching table Take a photo of your rosemary plant and add the query “Care instructions””
How does multiple search affect SEO?
John Mueller read the question at Google SEO Office Hours.
This is the question Mueller read:
“How multisearch works in Google Lens…can this affect SEO?”
John Mueller responded by first explaining how Google Lens multisearch is still a new thing.
“So… this is something that I think is still pretty new and how multisearch works.
We recently blogged about this. And you can do it in Chrome for example and on different types of phones.
Basically what happens is that you can take a picture of any image on a website and you can search with that image.
For example, if you find a specific … piece of clothing or … basically anything you’d like to find more information about, you can highlight that section of the image and then search for more similar things.”
SEO and Multisearch
Mueller then discussed SEO in the context of multisearch:
“And from an SEO point of view, that’s not really something you would do … manually to make it work.
Instead, if your images are indexed, we can find your images and highlight them to people when they search that way.
So it’s not like there’s … like a direct effect on SEO or anything like that.
But it’s like if you do everything right, if your content can be found in search, if you have images in your content and those images are relevant, we can drive people to those images or to your content in a number of ways. ”
SEO and Multisearch
John Mueller said there is nothing new for SEO specifically related to multisearch. Recommended SEO best practices for content and images.
However, in my opinion, Google Multisearch may require taking new SEO-related actions, including reconsidering your content and image strategy now that Google Lens is in the mix.
In terms of SEO, it might be wise to use the Google Lens app and check if your images are actually showing up for relevant queries.
Another thing to research is to check which competitors are ranking in Google Lens.
The arrival of multiple search means that it can be useful to consider using images on your web pages (if they are not already being used effectively) in addition to applying the various best practices for images, including recommendations of images for Google Discover and structured data.
Citations
Read Google Multisearch ads
Go beyond the search box: let’s introduce multisearch
Read more about the Google Lens app
Google Lens in the Google Play Store
Watch the Google Office Hours video
John Mueller answers the SEO and multisearch question at minute 17:39
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