Why This Shift Matters More Than You Think

Typing is no longer the only way people find what they’re looking for. In 2025, voice and visual search are transforming how consumers discover brands, products and services, especially on mobile devices. People ask questions out loud, take pictures of products or use smart assistants to find what they need. For brands operating in a multilingual market like Belgium, the implications are huge.

If your content isn’t structured for voice or visual search, you may be invisible to the people looking for you.

Understanding Voice and Visual Search

Voice search means people can ask questions out loud instead of typing them. They use their phones, smart speakers or even their car’s system to speak naturally. For example, instead of typing “best coffee shop in Leuven,” they might simply say, “Where can I get good coffee nearby?”

Visual search works when someone takes a photo or uploads an image and the search engine identifies what’s in the picture. This is helpful for things like clothes, food or landmarks. Tools like Google Lens, Pinterest Lens and Snapchat’s Scan are making this easier than ever.

These new ways of searching are changing how people use the internet. They want fast, simple answers, without having to type. That means your content needs to be set up in a way that makes it easy for voice tools and image search engines to understand and show it.

Why This Matters in a Multilingual Market Like Belgium

In Belgium, people speak different languages—Dutch, French, German and English—depending on where they live. This makes search behavior more complex. When people use voice search, they often speak in a very natural and local way. That means your content must be written in a way that reflects how real people speak in that region, not just based on keywords.

Visual search also has its challenges. If your images don’t have clear titles, good descriptions or useful background data, they won’t show up in search results. Even if your picture is exactly what someone wants, search engines may not know what it is. That’s why writing alt text in multiple languages is so important. It helps more people find your content, no matter what language they’re searching in.

The Risks of Not Optimizing for Voice and Visual Search

Many companies still focus only on traditional SEO, the kind that relies on typed searches and written keywords. But things are changing fast. More and more people are using voice search to speak their questions and visual search to find things by taking photos. If your content isn’t built for these newer formats, your brand may not show up when people are looking.

For example, voice searches already make up over 20% of mobile searches worldwide. Visual search is becoming more popular in areas like online shopping, travel planning, real estate, food delivery and even finding restaurants or clothes just by snapping a photo with a phone.

If you don’t adapt, you could be missing out in several ways:

• People won’t see your content in Google’s rich results or featured voice answers.
• Your products won’t appear in tools like Google Lens or voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.
• Your brand may not show up when people use AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to ask questions aloud or upload images.
• Your website could load slowly or perform poorly if your images aren’t optimized or properly tagged.
• You might lose out on younger or mobile-first audiences who rely heavily on voice search, smart devices or camera-based navigation.
• Your competitors may become more visible simply because their content is more structured and voice-ready.

In short, not optimizing your content for voice and visual search makes it harder for people to find you, especially on the platforms where modern users search the most.

These gaps in your content setup create what we call digital blind spots: places where your brand should be visible but isn’t. And in today’s world, being invisible online often means being forgotten altogether.

Core Actions: How to Prepare for Voice and Visual Search

Before jumping into tactics, it’s important to understand what success looks like. People using voice or visual search want fast, relevant and easy-to-understand answers. Your content needs to respond clearly, whether someone is asking a question aloud or pointing their phone at a product.

To stay visible in a changing search landscape, companies need to update their strategy with practical and structured steps:

• Use Structured Data Markup
  Schema.org markup helps search engines understand your content type—such as FAQ, product, video or recipe.
• Optimize for Conversational Queries
  Rewrite some content in natural, question-based formats. Include full sentences and long-tail phrases.
• Localize Voice Content
  Think in spoken language. Avoid overly formal phrasing. Adapt for how people in Brussels speak versus Liège or Antwerp.
• Add Accurate Multilingual Alt Text
  Every image should include descriptive alt text, using natural language and relevant keyphrases in each supported language.
• Compress and Tag Visual Assets
  Large images slow load times. Use descriptive filenames (e.g., “black-leather-bag-antwerp.jpg”) and relevant EXIF/meta data.
• Optimize for Featured Snippets and Voice Answers
  Use FAQ formats, structured lists and semantic subheadings to give AI search tools clear, ready-to-read responses.
• Create a Clean, Mobile-First Website Structure
  Voice and visual searches happen mostly on mobile. A fast-loading, easy-to-navigate site increases your chances of being featured.
• Use Natural Headings and Internal Linking
  Make it easy for AI tools to understand your site’s structure. Use clear H2s and H3s and link to related pages naturally.
• Design Content for Zero-Click Platforms
  Include summaries, bullet points and concise answers. These formats increase your visibility in voice assistants and AI-driven search results.
• Test Your Content with Voice Assistants
  Say your headlines and questions aloud. Do they sound natural? Can Siri or Google Assistant easily interpret them?
• Audit Visuals for Search Intent
  Add images that reflect what your audience might photograph or scan, especially product photos, packaging or store signage.

How BluMango Helps Brands Get Found Without Typing

Let’s take a real-world example. A Belgian fashion webshop added multilingual alt text and voice-friendly content with our help. The result? Their product images started showing up in Google Lens and their blog answers were featured in voice search snippets.

That’s the kind of impact you can expect when your content is built for how people really search.

At BluMango, we help clients build content ecosystems that work across traditional SEO, voice assistants and AI search. That includes multilingual metadata frameworks, image SEO, voice-optimised blogs and accessibility-compliant tagging.

We’re not just future-proofing your visibility. We’re making sure your content speaks and shows up, across every format that matters.

Looking Ahead – The Role of AI in Search Evolution

Search is becoming more human. With tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and voice-based browsing, people are now engaging in full conversations with search engines. To thrive in this future, content must be structured, context-aware and AI-ready.

That’s why we combine classic SEO with semantic layering, strong visuals and formats designed for AI summarization and voice response.

Conclusion

Voice and visual search are no longer trends to watch. They are happening right now. Every day, people are speaking to their devices, scanning products and letting AI guide their decisions. If your business isn’t showing up in these new search moments, you’re missing out on real customers.

Belgian businesses need to do more than translate. They need to adapt their entire content strategy to work across voice, visuals and multiple languages.

Want to be found in a world where people don’t always type? Let BluMango help you build the visibility system that works across all formats.

Get in touch today and make your brand searchable, speakable and truly seen.