Google Image Search Statistics

Google Image Search Analytics with expo-MAX

One of the key features that separates expo-MAX Real Analytics from other statistical products available today is the level of specificity and detail in our search engine referral reporting. For example, consider Google Images search. Google Images search is perhaps one of the most widely used specialty search engines and as such, it garners many websites a substantial amount of traffic. But Google Analytics does not provide detailed report for traffic originating from Google Images the same way it does for the regular search engines. The same goes for Yahoo Images, Bing Images and other specialty search engines.

To address this shortcoming, expo-MAX Real Analytics has built-in support for image searches and other detailed information about a referring search engine. We recognize that this information can be extremely useful to many search engine optimization (SEO) professionals that rely on the ability to track and analyze traffic referrals.

Take a look at the screenshot below.

This data was taken from a website that specializes in celebrity pictures. As you can see, a vast amount of this website’s traffic comes from image search engines. As you’d expect, a disproportionate amount of traffic comes from Google Images vs. Google—about 82 percent to be exact. You can also see specific details for users who came from image-specific search engines as compared to basic web searches; the bounce rate for those who found the site is much lower, for instance.

And this is only a fraction of the data that’s being collected about image search statistics by expo-MAX Real Analytics. This is the aggregate report that groups results based on hostnames. For more information, you can view the detailed report, which separates out the hostnames for each search engine (i.e. google.co.uk, google.de):

Again, it’s all about specificity and the level of detail in analytics reporting. expo-MAX Real Analytics offers you as little or as much detail as you need in order to optimize your off-site and on-site SEO campaigns. While the particular ways that you use this data will be unique to your situation, one thing is for sure: it pays to know how your web visitors find your website and how they use search engines. Simply put, those who are using Google Images or Yahoo Images instead of the basic web search have different purposes for running a search and different behaviors once they reach your website. The statistics and trends revealed by expo-MAX Real Analytics are a testament to that. And until Google Analytics adds built-in support for image search results into its reporting, it’s in your best interest to use expo-MAX Real Analytics on your site so you don’t miss out on key opportunities.