According to Google, in about 15% of your searches, you’re probably seeing some listings that are not websites. They could be pictures, or news stories, or videos.

It’s called “Universal Search” and it has big implications for small and medium-size business owners trying to use the internet as a marketing tool.

Assuming you’ve done all that you can in optimizing your website as a whole; you now have new tools to use to draw visitors to your website. Photographs, graphics, and videos by themselves are now things that can draw searchers to your site. Make sure that all of your photos and graphics have “alt tags” (descriptions of the images put into the site’s code – they should pop up when you mouse over the image). Use the words that people might be looking for in the descriptions. If you are an accountant and you have a stock photo of a person pouring over receipts on your site, describe it as “customer reviewing services provided by Central Florida accountant.” You get a small advantage when someone searches for “Central Florida Accountant.”

In fact, if you examine your site analytics, I’m sure you would be surprised to see how many visitors are coming to your site right now as a result of one of your images showing up in a search.

It is true that sometimes people looking for images are just searching for images, but you still have the opportunity to make a brand impression. If you are a cake maker and you have a photo of a cake sample on your site, title it as “great tasting three layer cake by ABC Bakery.”

Yes, even how you name your photos can influence your site traffic. Use names that are terms people may be searching for and never pass on the opportunity to make a brand impression.

If even a little effort turns into a couple of visitors, and your site is converting visitors to leads or sales effectively, you’ve just gained a lead or sale at no cost, and it doesn’t get better than that.