Essential Statistics

• Google processes 174 billion text searches per month.
• Image-based searches (Google Lens) hit 80 billion monthly.
• Voice search accounts for 1 billion monthly queries.
• Text search still dominates—but visual search is growing fast.
• Voice search lags far behind other modalities.
• Multimodal search behavior is now mainstream.
• Marketers must optimize for visual and voice—not just keywords.

Key Takeaways

• Text is still king—but don’t ignore other formats.
• Image search is exploding thanks to mobile and visual tools.
• Voice search is small but represents a different use case.
• Marketers need to diversify SEO for multimodal inputs.
• Multimodal optimization expands your reach across devices.
• Traditional SEO tactics alone are no longer enough.
• Visual assets and structured data now influence rankings.

Actionable Insights

Add Image SEO to Your Workflow

Optimize filenames, alt text, and image sitemaps for search engines.

Use Schema Markup for Visual Content

Help search engines better understand and display your images.

Transcribe and Mark Up Voice Content

Turn podcasts and videos into searchable text with proper tags.

Target Visual Keywords

Use Google Lens trends and image search data to guide content creation.

Design Content for Mobile Visuals

Make sure images and video thumbnails are crisp and clickable.

Support All Search Entry Points

Consider how users find you—text, image, voice—and optimize each.

Test Across Modalities

Track performance by search type to refine your content strategy.