Definition
What this term means
Search technology that allows users to find information by uploading or pointing a camera at an image, rather than typing a text query. Powered by AI image recognition and multimodal models, visual search can identify products, landmarks, plants, text within images, and more. Google Lens, Pinterest Lens, and Bing Visual Search are the most widely used visual search platforms.
Why it matters
The business impact
Visual search is particularly valuable for e-commerce, retail, and design industries where users often know what they want to find but cannot easily describe it in words. Brands that optimise their images with descriptive filenames, comprehensive alt text, product schema markup, and high-quality photography are more likely to be matched and recommended through visual search, opening a discovery channel that text-only optimisation cannot reach.
Used in context
How you might use this term
“A furniture retailer optimised their entire product image library with descriptive filenames, detailed alt text, and product schema markup including colour, dimensions, and material. Their visual search visibility increased significantly, with Google Lens matches driving a new stream of high-intent traffic from users who photographed similar items and were directed to their products.”