Augmented Reality (AR) has been with us since the 1990s, but it came into the spotlight only after Pokemon Go's launch in 2016. More than a game, Pokemon Go was more of an experience for game lovers worldwide. It was a free smartphone app that enabled users to interact with the fictional world without putting them off from the real world by leveraging AR technology.
Often, people get confused with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Virtual Reality disconnects you from the real world and takes you to the virtual world. To experience VR, you will need to wear a headset device and glasses, whereas you can access AR with a smartphone. In other words, VR enhances only the fictional world, while AR enhances both virtual and real-world.
After Pokemon Go’s sensational success, dozens of apps leveraged AR technology that allowed users to interact with their surroundings in a whole new way. Augmented Reality seems to be a surefire technology that can revolutionize any industry.
More so ever, digital marketing is one of the technology-friendly industries that welcomes any new technology to serve the customers better. And Augmented Reality in the field of search marketing and SEO is visual search.
Visual search uses real images like screenshots, internet images, or pictures for online searches. It enables customers to look for a product through visual processing. Thus, customers can locate desired products instantly. And for business owners, visual search is the advanced level of marketing and promotion.
What is Search for Augmented Reality?
Visual search is the buzzword in the SEO and digital marketing field in the context of Augmented Reality. Google Lens and many other similar apps have started adopting AR, changing the whole world of searches.
Specifically, Google Lens is the way of leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) to elevate its search function. Google Lens users can find any object, animal, or location by using their camera. Besides, Google Lens has a list of actionable items to improve the online shopping experience of the users like:
- ⇒ Text-Based Actions: With an image of text, Google Lens can translate languages, make calls, copy and paste content to find the topic or phrase listed.
- ⇒ Product Searches: Users can use their smartphone cameras to point to any object like an outfit, home decor, and more. Google Lens will process the visuals and find relevant products for you.
- ⇒ Explore Your Neighborhood: Google Lens allows you to learn about a business you are in front of just by pointing to your smartphone. You will get details like its opening times, reviews, ratings, and more.
So, ultimately Augmented Reality (AR) will change the way users interact and engage with web content. Thus, it has immense potential to change marketing and eCommerce. Hence, established brands and even SEO agencies need to rework their marketing and SEO strategies to face the AR wave.
Though AR is in earlier stages in eCommerce and SEO, big brands are already thinking about optimizing their webpages for visual search.
Any brand that welcomes the change and adopts it evolves and thrives in its industry. Thus, learning the influence of AR in search marketing and SEO will allow you to better prepare for it.
Now, let us have a sneak peek at AR and its impact on SEO.
Impact of Augmented Reality (AR) on SEO
1) Local SEO will become more Crucial
Augmented Reality (AR) uses the exact location of your business. That means customers can find more about your brand through an augmented reality app based on your office location.
Moreover, when more and more brands adapt and come with their AR apps and services, your brand may get lost in the crowd. Also, as AR apps depend on a real-world location, people can find business information based on its locality. That means your local SEO needs to be in place.
Thus, you have to include all your essential business details on your website and other listings. That means your business needs to have its presence on the popular directory forms like Yelp for business owners and Google My Business. That will ensure you will appear in searches for businesses in your locality.
For instance, when users leverage an AR app to scan over your office building, they will get your business information right from your Google My Business listing. Thus, you need to maintain your GMB profiles perfectly.
Plus, reviews also play a crucial part in creating an established online presence for AR. So, you have to ensure that you have a collection of reviews to get featured on the AR-based searches.
2) Interactive Website Experiences
We all know the user experience on your website has a significant impact on your SEO. So, how to create a user-friendly AR experience that improves the user experience and also helps your SEO? As AR is still emerging, that is not known yet.
However, AR will indeed enable you to create a more interactive and immersive website experience for your audience. As you start revamping your website with AR, you can better understand its impact on the user experience.
Plus, Google has recently declared the importance of user experience in the website ranking post the web core vitals launch. The AR technology enables you to offer a 360-degree experience that can make a shift in web design.
But, what does it mean to have an interaction or engagement through website design? The two prime Augmented Reality objects are 3D Volumes and Animated Media.
As a business, you can decide on what interaction you want to give to your users. Think outside the box and be innovative to incorporate AR to enhance the customer experience on your website.
3) Social Media will Accommodate AR Spontaneously
Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. More than connecting with friends/family, people interact with brands on social media these days. Thus, social media engagement plays a vital role in your SEO.
Social media is a more interactive platform to engage with your customers in a more personalized way. Thus, adapting AR will allow you to create engaging content, attracting your customers.
Snapchat has already adapted AR for its updates for geo-filters, overlays, and ad placements to enable an interactive shopping experience for users. Eventually, AR will become a trend in social media, and more people will prefer watching AR-enabled videos.
Of course, AR will allow you to create more realistic and interactive videos that will make your social media audience go wow.
Lastly, the more social you are, the better impact you can have on your audience. Nevertheless, Augmented Reality (AR) can help you with that precisely.
4) Location-Based Geo-Targeting
Search engines play a vital role in showing relevant results depending on the geographic location of the users. That is why the term near me became exceptionally popular with search engines. Now, with AR, location-based marketing will give a new experience to the users altogether.
Location-based marketing is nothing new, but incorporating AR into it will take your marketing to the next level. Geo AR enables you to include interactive and informative visual content to the location-based markers. It is an optimal feature for many industries, including tourism, gaming, navigation, entertainment, and more.
AR-enabled smartphones can give information about actual physical surroundings through their location detection capabilities. As most of you may already know, Pokemon Go and Ingress are a few examples of location-based AR apps.
How does a location-based AR app work? Consider you are in a new city or a tourist place. You want to know the restaurant options and tourist spots in that locality. All you need to do is to launch an AR app on your phone. Point it at the street, and you will get the names, ratings, and specialties of the restaurants or tourist places on the horizon.
Sounds cool? AR can simplify the lives of people for sure in the future.
5) StoryTelling Will Become even more Valuable
Storytelling is one of the efficient ways to attract and engage with an online audience. The story allows you to connect with the customers effortlessly as most people engage with the story instantly.
Augmented Reality (AR) is only going to amplify the experience as users can feel that they are part of the story itself.
What is storytelling in AR? Assume you are holding your phone up in your backyard and watching a representation of the Eiffel Tower. Now, AR allows you to experience the walk around the tower and see it from various angles.
That is just an example, and you can use your imagination and incorporate AR to weave your own story for your products. With AR, you can come with a better story that connects with your audience seamlessly.
Wrapping Up
Augmented Reality is an innovative technology that has the potential to flourish in many industries. Nevertheless, AR is an example of what we humans can accomplish with technology.
So, why not use AR technology to communicate with your online audience effectively? AR helps you have striking conversations with your audience. Almost all social media platforms will soon incorporate AR content to entertain their users. Facebook is already in the process of adopting AR for its platform.
Plus, since AR apps will predominantly use location in them, working on the local SEO of your business will become crucial. Also, improving the user experience on your website will play a vital role in your SEO ranking.
Augmented Reality AR is still in the early stages in terms of digital marketing or SEO. However, giants like Apple, Amazon, and more are already trying their hands-on AR applications to enable their users to have an optimal shopping experience.
Technology keeps evolving, and so are digital marketing and SEO strategies keep evolving respectively. Brands need to keep an eye on the current trends and technologies and incorporate them in their marketing campaigns to achieve a high ROI.
However, it is challenging for businesses to keep up with the constantly changing SEO strategies, let alone the AR’s impact on them. No worries. You can always hire SEO professionals and get your SEO done from them.
At Cypherox Technologies, we have seasoned SEO professionals who stay up to date with current SEO trends and strategies constantly. You can discuss with our SEO team to understand the recent SEO tactics, and they will make the best efforts to improve your site’s ranking in SERP.
