Ever feel like words aren’t quite enough for what you want to ask Google? But, at the same time, the Google Image Search isn’t right for the job either? You’ll be excited to hear about Multisearch, the new way to use both text and images to find exactly what you’re looking for when searching the web.
Multisearch is a new feature in Google Lens, designed to deliver results based on contextual text phrases to better understand visual queries. In the announcement, Google says it designed the feature to “go beyond the search box and ask questions about what you see.”
How Multisearch Works
As part of Google Lens, Multisearch is still first-and-foremost about visual search. You start by opening the Google app on Android or iOS devices and uploading or taking a picture using your device’s camera. Then, you can provide more information about what you’re looking for by swiping up and tapping the “+ Add to your search” button.
Google offers a few examples of how people can use Multisearch to get better search results:
Screenshot a stylish orange dress and add the query “green” to find it in another color
Snap a photo of your dining set and add the query “coffee table” to find a matching table
Take a picture of your rosemary plant and add the query “care instructions”
In its current shape, Multisearch is best used for shopping search results. This means it is something e-commerce brands should definitely keep an eye on in the near future.
While the feature uses Google’s AI systems, the announcement clarifies it does not use the search engine’s most recent AI model, MUM – yet:
“We’re also exploring ways in which this feature might be enhanced by MUM– our latest AI model in Search– to improve results for all the questions you could imagine asking.”
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Flow__1.max-1000x1000-1.png5641000Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-04-11 19:33:142022-04-11 19:33:16Google Multisearch Lets You Search With Pictures and Text at the Same Time
Google is offering a new solution for e-commerce brands interested in improving their site’s search capabilities.
With the release of Retail Search, Google Cloud is making it possible for online retailers to provide Google-quality search results on their own websites. This means it will be faster and easier for customers to find the products they are looking for on your site, making them more likely to complete thor transaction instead of abandoning your site.
How Poor Search Experiences Hurt Online Retailers
According to a 2021 survey from The Harris Poll and Google Cloud, at least 94% of American consumers have abandoned a shopping session because of poor quality or irrelevant search results and 76% of shoppers said that an unsuccessful search led to a lost sale for a retail website.
Based on this, the report estimates retailers lose $300 billion each year solely because of this phenomenon known as search abandonment.
Understanding Intent To Deliver Better Search Results
The biggest hurdle to delivering successful search results has always been understanding search intent.
Most basic search engines struggle to identify user intent and deliver the most relevant search results quickly. Google’s systems, however, are constantly being updated with the specific goal of better understanding user intent and delivering the best results quickly.
With Retail Search, retailers can now deliver that same quality search experience on their own site.
Customizable For Your Needs
Retail Search is fully customizable to suit the needs of almost any e-commerce site.
As the announcement says:
“Our site search solution builds upon decades of Google’s experience and innovation in search indexing, retrieval, and ranking. Retailers can make product discovery even easier for shoppers, while optimizing for their business goals with advanced capabilities.”
These capabilities include:
Advanced query understanding that produces better results from even the broadest queries, including non-product searches.
Semantic search to effectively match product attributes with website content for fast, relevant product discovery.
Optimized results that leverage user interaction and ranking models to meet specific business goals.
State-of-the-art security and privacy practices that ensure retailer data is isolated with strong access controls and is only used to deliver relevant search results on their own properties.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Google-Store-Promotions.png450800Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-04-04 18:11:442022-04-04 18:11:46Provide Google-Quality Search Results On Your E-Commerce Site
If you’re a business owner or operator, you’ve probably been told 100 times by 100 different people that you just HAVE to invest in Search Engine Optimization. Unfortunately, you’ve also likely never really heard why SEO is so important beyond broad mentions of “being found online” or that “everyone uses Google.”
Marketers and salespeople have a bad habit of talking about the power and benefits of optimization without explaining what sets it apart from other types of online marketing, how it impacts your ability to reach new markets, and why many SEO packages don’t cut it.
So today, I wanted to do just that.
What Is Search Engine Optimization
Before we can talk about what makes SEO special, we have to talk a bit about what it is.
In the simplest terms, search engine optimization is the name for a wide range of strategies and techniques used to increase your visibility on search engines.
In the past, this could be boiled down to the phrase “making your website the top result on Google searches.” These days, search engines are much more complex and what might be the top result for one user might be completely different for another.
As such, SEO has evolved to focus more on overall visibility across Google’s many systems with the goal of attracting as many potential customers as possible to your site.
How SEO Works
For our purposes today, we aren’t going to go very in-depth discussing the numerous strategies or techniques used in SEO. Otherwise, we’d be here all day.
What matters for this discussion is understanding that these methods affect how Google sees and ranks your site.
While some strategies are dedicated to helping Google understand the content that is on your site, others are intended to boost the overall value of your site. Combined, these approaches help ensure Google picks your site for relevant searches and gives you the best chance to attract website traffic.
Why SEO Is Essential in 2022
Google Is The Most Visited Site In The World
Marketers always like to say “everyone uses Google” to emphasize the importance of SEO (and they aren’t necessarily wrong), but what does that really mean?
It means that Google is a massive part of daily life for practically everyone around the globe, and can massively influence what information we see, who we do business with, and what products people buy.
The most popular site in the world NOT owned by Google – Facebook – sees less than a quarter of the traffic seen by Google.com.
No matter how you try to spin it, Google acts as the central hub to the internet for the vast majority of people out there. If you don’t play by their rules, you risk being disconnected from this hub and any potential traffic you might get.
Organic Search is Still The Main Driver of Traffic
When considering where to invest their marketing budget, many businesses find themselves asking the same question: “Why should I spend money on SEO, which is complicated and not guaranteed to pay off, when I could instead run ads that are guaranteed to appear above those search results?”
Organic search results get underestimated because ranking highly is rarely a sure thing – even for the biggest companies. Meanwhile, paid search ads are built around driving results without uncertainty.
Despite this, there is actually a very simple reason you should invest in organic search optimization.
At the end of the day, the majority of search results still result in a user clicking an organic link from regular search results. So while it may seem riskier, investing in search engine optimization has the chance for much larger rewards.
Better SEO Means Better User Experience
Every brand wants its website to provide the best user experience possible. A positive user experience increases the likelihood of driving conversions, while negative user experiences can sour people on your company entirely.
So, it should come as good news that the majority of SEO practices are intended to improve user experience in a variety of ways including speeding up your site, making it easier to use, and improving accessibility.
By ensuring you are optimized for search engines, you are also investing in improving your site for the real potential customers who will soon be visiting.
SEO Is a Process That Is Always Changing
Companies looking to save some cash on SEO will have an easy time finding dozens of cheap SEO packages across the web. The problems with the packages are numerous, but the biggest red flag is the assumption that SEO is something you do once.
In reality, SEO is something that needs to be done regularly to have a real impact.
When left alone, Google assumes websites are becoming outdated or irrelevant. No matter what industry you are in, there are always new products coming out, new information that can benefit your customers, and new ways to improve your site.
Additionally, Google itself is always changing. The company releases new guidelines, algorithm updates, and features for webmasters seemingly every day. Any cheap package deal is unable to take these updates into account and help your company stay ahead of the rapidly changing search results.
SEO Results Amplify With Time
Unlike almost any other form of marketing, search engine optimization is one of the few investments which tends to build on itself for greater and greater results.
As you optimize your website and create quality content to improve your search rankings, you also provide a more robust presence online. Your website becomes an even greater resource to potential customers. You start getting linked to by others in your industry. People start sharing your brand around social media.
Ads may drive immediate results, but these tend to stabilize with time. Effective search engine optimization, on the other hand, pays increasing dividends the longer you invest in it.
The role search engines play in our lives will only continue to grow as people become more connected and expect information to always be at their fingertips. For all these reasons, it is imperative that companies invest in the best optimization practices possible if they want to continue reaching prospective customers in an increasingly digital world.
Due to the long-term impact of SEO, the best time to start optimizing your website was probably months or years ago. The second best time, however, is now.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/What-Is-Search-Engine-Optimization1.png6301120Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-03-17 18:39:372022-03-17 18:39:39What Is Search Engine Optimization and Why Do You Need It
Inspired by the popularity of TikTok, Google is working to find new ways to include short-form videos in search results.
Google Product Manager Danielle Marshak revealed this during a recent episode of the Search Off the Record podcast with hosts Gary Illyes and Lizzi Sassman from Google’s Search Relations team.
Why Google Is Interest In Short-Form Videos
Though the entire episode is more broadly focused on discussing how Google handles video content in search results, the conversation eventually turns to the most popular video format of the moment – short vertical videos less than 5 minutes in length.
Beyond their popularity, the Google employees agree there is a lot of interest in short videos because they are easily digestible and can contain a lot of information in a compact package.
As Marshak says:
“And this format, it’s really cool because as I mentioned, it is very concise. You can get a lot of information in a short period of time, and you can also get a loot of different views and perspectives…
“So we think this kind of content could be useful for a lot of different types of search queries, and we’ve been experimenting with how to show it to users more often.”
Could TikTok Videos Appear In Search Results?
Since TikTok is practically synonymous with this specific type of short video, it was only a matter of time before the social video app was brought up.
Interestingly, Gary Illyes explained that the unique way TikTok works makes its content much easier for the search engine to crawl and index compared to others like Snapchat or Instagram.
Since every TikTok video has a unique URL and can be opened directly in a web browser, Illyes says there is a chance the videos could be directly indexed and shown in search results:
“You can actually open it on the laptop and you will end up on a web page and you can actually watch it on the web page. You don’t have to have the TikTok app for watching the video.
“So I imagine that if they allow crawling – I haven’t checked – then we can probably index those videos as well.”
Other Ways Google Is Integrating Short Videos Into Search
When asked about other types of short video content that Google might include in search results pages, Marshak mostly focused on educational or informational content, such as recipes:
“So let’s say, again, you’re searching for some new ideas to make banana bread. And right now, you might see traditional recipes, you might see longer videos, but you could also see short videos, which could just give you a different style or perspective.
“And people’s preferences are different. Some people might prefer to read; some people might prefer a longer video; some people might prefer short videos.
“And so we want to offer a lot of different options to get that type of information, in the format that is most useful for you. So that’s one example.”
From what was said, it seems the ideas are still in their early stages but the episode makes it clear that Google is taking TikTok and its popular video format very seriously. You can expect to see much more of it in search results sooner, rather than later.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Video-to-Content.png6401280Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-03-10 20:28:232022-03-10 20:28:25Google Wants To Emphasize Short Videos In Search Results
It is no secret that the past few years have wildly shaken up the world – especially when it comes to doing business. Coronavirus, international shipping delays, and rising prices have drastically reshaped customer needs and expectations in virtually every market – as a new report from Google makes particularly clear.
Using a comparison of search trends from 2021 to 2022, Google’s data reveals what customers are looking for as we settle into a “new normal” and brace for even more new challenges in the future.
What Customers Want
More than anything, the search trends from Google reveal that customers are looking for brands that can provide the goods and services they are looking for when they need them. This is reflected by significant increases in searches extended hours and quick service.
For example, the report shows these search phrases saw major increases over the past year:
“Late night shopping”: Up 100% year-over-year
“24/7 customer service”: Up 500% year-over-year
“Next day flower delivery”: Up 800% year-over-year
Return to In-Person Events
Google search data makes it very clear that consumers are itching to get back out and enjoy in-person events again, now that the coronavirus pandemic appears to be winding down. This has led to growth in searches for phrases like:
“Cinema near me”: Up 300% year-over-year
“Seating chart”: Up 600% year-over-year
“Spring break”: Up 100% year-over-year
“Unique things to do in”: Up 100% year-over-year
Some Pandemic Trends Linger
While shoppers are eager to ditch some aspects of the pandemic, Google pinpoints a few trends which popped up during quarantines and appear to be sticking around. These “sticky” trends include:
“Makeup game”: Up 700% year-over-year
“Best movies to stream right now”: Up 300% year-over-year
Most people these days understand the general idea of how search engines work. Search engines like Google send out automated bots to scan or “crawl” all the pages on a website, before using their algorithms to sort through which sites are best for specific search queries.
What few outside Google knew until recently, was that the search engine has begun using two different methods to crawl websites – one which specifically searches out new content and another to review content already within its search index.
Google Search Advocate John Mueller revealed this recently during one of his regular Search Central SEO office-hours chats on January 7th.
During this session, an SEO professional asked Mueller about the behavior he has observed from Googlebot crawling his website.
Specifically, the user says Googlebot previously crawled his site daily when it was frequently sharing content. Since content publishing has slowed on this site, he has seen that Googlebot has been crawling his website less often.
As it turns out, Mueller says this is quite normal and is the result of how Google approaches crawling web pages.
How Google Crawls New vs. Old Content
While Mueller acknowledges there are several factors that can contribute to how often it crawls different pages on a website – including what type of pages they are, how new they are, and how Google understands your site.
“It’s not so much that we crawl a website, but we crawl individual pages of a website. And when it comes to crawling, we have two types of crawling roughly.
One is a discovery crawl where we try to discover new pages on your website. And the other is a refresh crawl where we update existing pages that we know about.”
These different types of crawling target different types of pages, so it is reasonable that they also occur more or less frequently depending on the type of content.
“So for the most part, for example, we would refresh crawl the homepage, I don’t know, once a day, or every couple of hours, or something like that.
And if we find new links on their home page then we’ll go off and crawl those with the discovery crawl as well. And because of that you will always see a mix of discover and refresh happening with regard to crawling. And you’ll see some baseline of crawling happening every day.
But if we recognize that individual pages change very rarely, then we realize we don’t have to crawl them all the time.”
The takeaway here is that Google adapts to your site according to your own publishing habits. Which type of crawling it is using or how frequently it is happening are not inherently good or bad indicators of your website’s health, and your focus should be (as always) on providing the smoothest online sales experience for your customers.
Nonetheless, it is interesting to know that Google has made this adjustment to how it crawls content across the web and to speculate about how this might affect its ranking process.
To hear Mueller’s full response (including more details about why Google crawls some sites more often than others), check out the video below:
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/John-Mueller.jpg337640Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2022-01-11 18:31:032022-01-11 18:31:04Google Reveals It Has Two Ways To Crawl Web Pages
Google has revealed their yearly recap of all the top trending searches for a smorgasbord of topics and themes for 2021. The lists show a focus on the news, money, and (of course) Squid Game, but they also reveal a bit about how Google thinks about its purpose as a search engine.
In addition to the expected stories or trends like Gabby Petito or various types of cryptocurrency, the list of top trending searches brings attention to the ways people use Google to find information, connect with others, and how to improve their own lives with tutorials, resources, and ways to help others in need.
Below, we will include some of the most interesting top trending search lists for the US from 2021, or you can explore Google’s full Year In Search site here.
Google’s Top 10 Trending Searches in 2021
NBA
DMX
Gabby Petito
Kyle Rittenhouse
Brian Laundrie
Mega Millions
AMC Stock
Stimulus Check
Georgia Senate Race
Squid Game
Top Trending News Searches
Mega Millions
AMC Stock
Stimulus Check
Georgia Senate Race
GME
Dogecoin
Hurricane Ida
Kyle Rittenhouse verdict
Afghanistan
Ethereum price
Top Trending Searches for How To Help Others
How to help Afghan refugees
How to help Texas
How to help India COVID
How to help toddler with cough
How to help foster kids
Top Trending Searches For “How To Be”
How to be eligible for stimulus check
How to be more attractive
How to be happy alone
How to be a baddie
How to be a good boyfriend
Top Trending “This or That” Searches
Effect or affect
Barbie, Bratz or Fairy
Allergies or COVID
Bones or no bones
Bougie or boujee
Pfizer or Moderna
Sinus infection or COVID
Choose Bidoof or Bidoof
Cold or COVID
Capitol or capital
Top Trending “Where to Buy” Searches
Dogecoin
Shiba coin
PS5
safemoon
N95 mask
XRP
NFT
Baby Doge
Xbox Series X
Squishmallows
As usual, Google also collected many of these lists and trends into a Year in Search video for 2021. Check it out below:
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/GoogleYearInSearch2021.jpg8961593Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2021-12-09 19:24:442021-12-09 19:24:46Google Shares The Top Trending Searches For 2021
Google says it is going to be radically updating its search engine by integrating its new “MUM” algorithm into its systems.
This will allow Google’s search engines to better understand topics, find better answers and sources, and provide more intuitive ways to explore ideas.
Accompanying these new search systems, Google is going to be redesigning its search pages with new features that provide new ways to discover information and conduct searches that are more visual.
What is the MUM Algorithm?
Introduced earlier this year, the Multitask Unified Model algorithm, or MUM, allowed Google to better find information using images and across multiple languages.
The main purpose of the algorithm is to improve Google’s ability to search with images and other types of visual content, rather than just text.
Three Ways MUM Is Changing Search
While it is hard to know exactly how transformative the introduction of the MUM algorithm will be before it arrives, Google did highlight three key features which will be coming with the change.
“Things to know”
Topic Zoom
Visual Topic Exploration
Google’s “Things to Know”
Using predictive models, Google’s search engine will soon intuit the most likely steps you will take after an initial search and deliver websites that will facilitate those actions.
To help illustrate this process, the announcement uses the example of a user searching for “acrylic painting”.
According to the search engine’s data, there are more than 350 topics associated with that specific keyword phrase.
Using this knowledge, the “things to know” feature will then identify the most relevant or popular “paths” users are likely to take to further explore that topic and find content relating to that.
Topic Exploration
The next feature piggybacks on the last by making it easy to dive into related topics or find more in-depth information.
Using the feature, users can quickly broaden the topic they are looking at to find more general information, or zoom in to more detailed resources.
Visual Exploration
The last update enabled by MUM is actually already live on the search engine, providing a new way to visually explore topics.
Specifically, the visual search results page will appear for searches where a user is “looking for inspiration.”
“This new visual results page is designed for searches that are looking for inspiration, like ‘Halloween decorating ideas’ or ‘indoor vertical garden ideas,’ and you can try it today.”
It is likely that these new features are just the start of Google’s introduction of the MUM algorithm to revamp how it does search. Since its start, the search engine has struggled to understand visual content, but MUM finally provides a path to not only understand but deliver visual content across the entire Google platform.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Google-MUM.png4201200Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2021-09-30 18:37:272021-09-30 18:37:29Google Radically Redoes Its Search Engine With The MUM Algorithm
In just 2020, Google has changed its search engine more than 4,500 times, according to the newly updated “How Search Works” site.
Or, as Google puts it, “There have been 4,500 such improvements in 2020 alone.”
Whether you agree with Google’s description of their changes as “improvements”, the disclosure is interesting because it shows that the search engine continued to ramp up how frequently it updates parts of its system – even during the initial outbreak of the COVID pandemic.
In comparison, Google made 3,200 changes to its search engine in 2019, the year before. At the same time, the company said this was nearly a 10x increase from a decade before. In 2009, the search engine reported just 350-400 changes.
What Do These Changes Include?
Google’s 2020 ‘improvements’ can include anything from updates to its user interface, changes to search results, and adjustments to how specific carousels or sub-sections like “news” function.
As such, it isn’t all that surprising that Google is making significantly more updates to its systems than it was a decade ago. The search engine is considerably more complex and multifaceted these days compared to its 2009 counterpart.
Still, I think many expected to see a relative slowdown to these updates as many workers began working remotely and the country braced for the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“How Search Works” Site Gets a Redesign
This info was revealed as part of a much larger redesign of the search engine’s ‘How Search Works’ website, which “explains the ins and outs of search.”
Since 2013, Google has used the portal to help educate users about the broad principles Google uses to rank sites and filter out spam or inappropriate content.
With the latest update, the company has “updated the site with fresh information, made it easier to navigate and bookmark sections and added links to additional resources that share how Search works and answer common questions.”
“The website gives you a window into what happens from the moment you start typing in the search bar to the moment you get your search results. It gives an overview of the technology and work that goes into organizing the world’s information, understanding what you’re looking for and then connecting you with the most relevant, helpful information,” Google added.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GoogleRankings.png360640Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2021-08-24 18:01:232021-08-24 18:01:25Google Tweaked Its Search Engine At Least 4,500 Times in 2020
Google is rolling out a new addition to its “About this result” feature in search results which will explain why the search engine chose a specific result to rank.
The new section, called “Your search & this result” explains the specific factors which made Google believe a specific page may have what you’re looking for.
This can include a number of SEO factors, ranging from the keywords which matched with the page (including related but not directly matching terms), backlink details, related images, location-based information, and more.
How Businesses Can Use This Information
For users, this feature can help understand why they are seeing specific search results and even provide tips for refining their search for better results.
The unspoken utility of this tool for businesses is glaringly obvious, however.
This feature essentially provides an SEO report card, showing exactly where you are doing well on ranking for important keywords. By noting what is not included, you can also get an idea of what areas could be improved to help you rank better in the future.
Taking this even further, you could explore the details for other pages ranking for your primary keywords, helping you better strategize to overtake your competition.
What It Looks Like
Below, you can see a screenshot of what the feature looks like in action:
The information box provides a quick bullet point list of several factors which caused the search engine to return the specific result. While Google only detailed a few of the possible details the box may include, users around the web have reported seeing information about all of these factors included:
Included search terms: Google can show which exact search terms were matched with the content or HTML on the related page. This includes content that is not typically visible to users, such as the title tag or meta data.
Related search terms: Along with the keywords which were directly matched with the related page, Google can also show “related” terms. For example, Google knew to include results related to the Covid vaccine based on the keyword “shot”.
Other websites link to this page: The search engine may choose to highlight a page which might otherwise appear unrelated because several pages using the specific keyword linked to this specific page.
Related images: If the images are properly optimized, Google may be able to identify when images on a page are related to your search.
This result is [Language]: Obviously, users who don’t speak or read your language are unlikely to have much use for your website or content. This essentially notes that the page is in the same language you use across the rest of Google.
This result is relevant for searches ih [Region]: Lastly, the search engine may note if locality helped influence its search result based on other contextual details. For example, it understood that the user in Vermont, was likely looking for nearby results when searching “get the shot”.
The expanded “About this result” section is rolling out to English-language U.S. users already and is expected to be widely available across the country within a week. From there, Google says it will work to bring the feature to more countries and languages soon.
https://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GoogleRankings.png360640Taylor Ballhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTaylor Ball2021-07-22 18:01:212021-07-22 18:01:22Google Says It Will Start Explaining Its Specific Search Result Rankings
