Marketers beware: Navigation arrows that now display in Google Image Searches improve user experience, but they may cause branded website content to lose clicks, according to Google Operating System. The unofficial Google news and tips forum recently noticed the change in Image Search results.
The post explains that previously, users could only navigate from one image search result to the next by pressing the left and right arrow keys on their keyboards. Now, the screen shows navigational arrows to the left and right of results.
For marketers, internet users’ clicks and website traffic are hanging in the balance. The source reports that while consumers enjoy this feature, the new nav capability makes it easier to skip to more image results rather than visit brands’ digital content for full images.
Brafton reported that image search traffic dropped in 2013 after Google released another update, which brought high-resolution pictures directly in search results pages. Instead of clicking through to publishers’ websites, users can view high-quality graphic content without navigating to another page.
Even if brands do not see traffic upticks and conversions from their queried pictures, it’s wise for marketers to create custom infographic content and photos because pretty websites perform better in search.
