The professor teaching our emerging media class has placed an emphasis on the use of visuals in not only our blogs, but also our internal class discussions through West Virginia University’s IMC program.
Some experts agree with his urging to use graphics as our brains tend to more quickly process images. It’s noted that in order for humans to understand text we must first see the words then translate them to a language and then convert the words into meaning. Images speak to us much more quickly.
This rationale leads us to Google Carousel which offers prime retail at the top of a Google SERP (search engine results page) plus imagery!
The imagery helps sell a result by making it easy to understand and easy to navigate since it is at the top of the SERP. Currently, the carousel contains up to 20 results and mainly appears in industry searches such as travel and restaurants. It can be assumed that we are just in the initial phases of Google carousel and that it’s only a matter of time before other types of industries are included in the carousel.
What does this mean for marketers? It means that a Google search can now yield even more information than just text, providing another outlet to communicate with and market to consumers. A carousel entry can contain photos of the property, a Google Map, a Google Street View image, contact information, the address, reviews, booking information, and other suggested searches.
Marketers will need to be diligent in their SEO efforts to try to obtain a “top spot” in the carousel and make sure their photos and information are up to date, and that they are monitoring their online reviews. It’s an exciting form of emerging media that is still in its initial stages. But we can be sure Google is always looking to what’s next so carousel is likely to become more standard as Search progresses.
Emerging Media 