SEO
How to Reverse Video Search (& Why It’s Useful)
Have you ever stumbled across an exciting video and wondered where it came from?
If so, you’ll be pleased to know that there are many ways to find a video source through reverse video searches.
This guide teaches how to conduct a reverse video search and why it’s useful.
What Is A Reverse Video Search?
Many people use search engines to find information by searching for a particular word or phrase (i.e., “keywords”) until the search engine reveals a page, video, or another piece of content that matches the search.
A reverse search, however, involves entering the piece of content (typically, a video or image) and finding each webpage on which the piece of content appears.
Thus, an RVS (reverse video search) involves imputing a video into the search engine and discovering the source of that video on the web.
How Reverse Video Search Works
Search engines, like Google, can interpret the color and pixels in a video and then find similar (or exact) videos on the web.
This will often reveal the original source of the video and any other instances of the video online.
However, this process is not always 100% accurate.
If a single pixel in the video has changed, it might not appear in the search results.
Plus, a high number of videos are uploaded to the web every day, so this process requires search engines to effectively index all videos to surface them in the search results.
Reasons To Use Reverse Video Search
There are a few reasons one might want to use reverse video search. Here are the most common use cases:
Find The Source Of A Video
Most often, a reverse video search is used to find the source of a video.
Say you find a funny or valuable video online. You might want to know who published the video, whether other content (like a blog article) is connected to the video, or whether the owner produces similar content.
A reverse video search, in this instance, may be able to find the original source of the content.
Find Duplicate Videos
If you are a video producer, you might want to use a reverse video search to see if anyone has copied or reproduced one of your original videos.
A reverse video search can help you find illegitimate uses of your content, after which you can contact the owner and ask for credit or for the video to be taken down.
Find The Full Version Of A Video Clip
Sometimes you might come across an interesting video clip and want to find the rest of the video.
A reverse video search might be able to interpret the video clip and find the full video online.
Find Related Content
A reverse video search may also be able to help you discover content that’s related to the video.
It might surface similar videos or related content (like articles, web pages, or blog posts) that featured the video.
This can be a great way to find more interesting content.
How To Conduct A Reverse Video Search
There are many ways to conduct a reverse video search. It often requires using the search engine directly or a third-party tool to upload the image.
Here are the most effective methods for conducting a reverse video search.
Run A Reverse Video Search On Google
Google doesn’t offer a reverse search function specific to video, so you will need to take a screenshot of the video and then use the reverse image search function.
- Find a distinctive frame in the video (i.e., a section that seems unique from other videos and most likely to surface the same video online).
- Pause the video.
- Take a screenshot of the frame you wish to capture ( Shift-Command-4 on Apple/Mac or Ctrl + PrtScn on Windows).
- Save the screenshot.
- Navigate to Google Images and select the camera icon. Use the search by image option.
- Upload the screenshot.
- Google will return the search results for your screenshot (if available).
Screenshot of Google Images results for [domestic short-haired cat], Google, September 2022Run A Reverse Video Search Using Berify
Berify.com is a reverse image and video search tool that matches your search to results from several search engines at once, including Google, Bing, Yandex, and others.
This may provide more complete results than using a single search engine.
Note: This freemium tool allows you to sign up for free, but will then charge a monthly subscription fee. So, use the free version if you only need a few searches.
Here’s how to use it:
- Take a screenshot of the video clip you want to search for.
- Visit Berify.com.
- Upload the screenshot to the search box that says Browse and upload the image here.
- Click Search.
- Berify will surface any results that match your search.
Run A Reverse Video Search Using Shutterstock
Shutterstock hosts a massive online database of over 1 billion images and videos. It can also be used to conduct a reverse video search.
- Take a screenshot of the video clip you want to search for.
- Visit Shutterstock.com.
- Navigate to the search box. Click on the camera icon (the Search by image function).
- Upload the screenshot. (Note: You can also specify whether you’re searching for certain vectors or whether illustrations in the video are animated/computer generated).
- Click the magnifying glass.
- Shutterstock will surface images or videos similar to your search.
Run A Reverse Video Search Using TinEye
TinEye is one of the leading “search by image” tools that allow you to find other images and videos that match your search.
TinEye uses computer vision, image recognition, and reverse image search technology.
- Take a screenshot of the video clip you want to search for or search for the video by URL.
- Visit TinEye.com.
- Find the search box. Click the Upload button to upload your screenshot, or simply drag and drop your image.
- Click the magnifying glass.
- TinEye will surface any images or videos that are similar to your search.
Run A Reverse Video Search on Bing
Like Google, Bing’s reverse video search function works best with a video screenshot. Running a reverse video search on Bing is simple:
- Take a screenshot of the video clip you want to search for.
- Open Bing’s Visual Search page.
- Upload the screenshot, drag and drop the screenshot, or paste the URL of the image or video in the search box.
- Bing will surface results for “related content” that closely matches the image or video.
Conducting A Reverse Image Search is Simple
Whether you’re trying to track down the source of a funny video or find similar content to suit your interests, a reverse video search can be a helpful tool for anyone.
Google, Bing, TinEye, and other tools offer reverse video search features that simplify finding a video’s origins.
Remember, reverse video search can help you find duplicate content, which could help you protect your digital assets. Or, it can help you find the original publisher of a video so you can give credit where it’s due.
Video is an excellent addition to many marketing campaigns, web content, social media strategy, and more. Use reverse video search to make finding, sourcing, and attributing videos more accessible than ever.
More resources:
Featured Image: Overearth/Shutterstock
SEO
Google Updating Cryptocurrency Advertising Policy For 2024
Google published an announcement of upcoming changes to their cryptocurrency advertising policies and advises advertisers to make themselves aware of the changes and prepare to be in compliance with the new requirements.
The upcoming updates are to Google’s Cryptocurrencies and related products policy for the advertisement of Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts. The changes are set to take effect on January 29th, 2024.
Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts are financial products that enable investors to trade shares in trusts holding substantial amounts of digital currency. These trusts provide investors with equity in cryptocurrencies without having direct ownership. They are also an option for creating a more diversified portfolio.
The policy updates by Google that are coming in 2024 aim to describe the scope and requirements for the advertisement of Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts. Advertisers targeting the United States will be able to promote these products and services as long as they abide by specific policies outlined in the updated requirements and that they also obtain certification from Google.
The updated policy changes are not limited to the United States. They will apply globally to all accounts advertising Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts.
Google’s announcement also reminded advertisers of their obligation for compliance to local laws in the areas where the ads are targeted.
Google’s approach for violations of the new policy will be to first give a warning before imposing an account suspension.
Advertisers that fail to comply with the updated policy will receive a warning at least seven days before a potential account suspension. This time period provides advertisers with an opportunity to fix non-compliance issues and to get back into compliance with the revised guidelines.
Advertisers are encouraged to refer to Google’s documentation on “About restricted financial products certification.”
The deadline for the change in policy is January 29th, 2024. Cryptocurrency Coin Trusts advertisers will need to pay close attention to the updated policies in order to ensure compliance.
Read Google’s announcement:
Updates to Cryptocurrencies and related products policy (December 2023)
SEO
SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore In 2024
Most SEO trends fade quickly. But some of them stick and deserve your attention.
Let’s explore what those are and how to take advantage of them.
If you give ChatGPT a title and ask it to write a blog post, it will—in seconds.
This is super impressive, but there are a couple of issues:
- Everyone else using ChatGPT is creating the same content. It’s the same for users of other GPT-powered AI writing tools, too—which is basically all of them.
- The content is extremely dull. Sure, you can ask ChatGPT to “make it more entertaining,” but it usually overcompensates and hands back a cringe version of the same boring content.
In the words of Gael Breton:
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t use AI to write entire articles. They’ll be boring as heck. Instead, use it as a creative sparring partner to help you write better content and automate monotonous tasks.
For example, you can ask ChatGPT To write an outline from a working title and a list of keywords (which you can pull from Ahrefs)—and it does a pretty decent job.
Prompt:
Create an outline for a post entitled “[working title]” based on these keywords: [list]
Result:
When you’ve written your draft, you can ask to polish it in seconds by asking ChatGPT to proofread it.
Then you can automate the boring stuff, like creating more enticing title tags…
… and writing a meta description:
If you notice a few months down the line that your content ranks well but hasn’t won the featured snippet, ChatGPT can help with that, too.
For example, Ahrefs tells us we rank in position 3 for “affiliate marketing” but don’t own the snippet.
If we check Google, the snippet is a definition. Asking ChatGPT to simplify our definition may solve this problem.
In short, there are a near-infinite number of ways to use ChatGPT (and other AI writing tools) to create better content. And all of them buck the trend of asking it to write boring, boilerplate articles from scratch.
Programmatic SEO refers to the creation of keyword-targeted pages in an automatic (or near automatic) way.
Nomadlist’s location pages are a perfect example:
Each page focuses on a specific city and shares the same core information—internet speeds, cost, temperature, etc. All of this information is pulled programmatically from a database and the site gets an estimated 46k monthly search visits in total.
Programmatic SEO is nothing new. It’s been around forever. It’s just the hot thing right now because AI tools like ChatGPT make it easier and more accessible than ever before.
The problem? As John Mueller pointed out on Twitter X, much of it is spam:
I love fire, but also programmatic SEO is often a fancy banner for spam.
— I am John – ⭐ Say no to cookies – biscuits only ⭐ (@JohnMu) July 25, 2023
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t use programmatic SEO to publish insane amounts of spam that’ll probably get hit in the next Google update. Use it to scale valuable content that will stand the test of time.
For example, Wise’s currency conversion pages currently get an estimated 31.7M monthly search visits:
This is because the content is actually useful. Each page features an interactive tool showing the live exchange rate for any amount…
… the exchange rate over time…
… a handy email notification option when the exchange rates exceed a certain amount…
… handy conversion charts for popular amounts…
… and a comparison of the cheapest ways to send money abroad in your chosen currency:
It doesn’t matter that all of these pages use the same template. The data is exactly what you want to see when you search [currency 1] to [currency 2].
That’s probably why Wise ranks in the top 10 for over 66,000 of these keywords:
Looking to take advantage of programmatic content in 2024 like Wise? Check out the guide below.
People love ChatGPT because it answers questions fast and succinctly, so it’s no surprise that generative AI is already making its way into search.
For example, if you ask Bing for a definition or how to do something basic, AI will generate an answer on the fly right there in the search results.
In other words, thanks to AI, users no longer have to click on a search result for answers to simple questions. It’s like featured snippets on steroids.
This might not be a huge deal right now, but when Google’s version of this (Search Generative Experience) comes out of beta, many websites will see clicks fall off a cliff.
How to take advantage of this SEO trend
Don’t invest too much in topics that generative AI can easily answer. You’ll only lose clicks like crazy to AI in the long run. Instead, start prioritizing topics that AI will struggle to answer.
How do you know which topics it will struggle to answer? Try asking ChatGPT. If it gives a good and concise answer, it’s clearly an easy question.
For example, there are hundreds of searches for how to calculate a percentage in Google Sheets every month in the US:
If you ask ChatGPT for the solution, it gives you a perfect answer in about fifty words.
This is the perfect example of a topic where generative AI will remove the need to click on a search result for many.
That’s probably not going to be the case for a topic like this:
Sure. Generative AI might be able to tell you how to create a template—but it can’t make one for you. And even if it can in the future, it will never be a personal finance expert with experience. You’ll always have to click on a search result for a template created by that person.
These are the kinds of topics to prioritize in 2024 and beyond.
Sidenote.
None of this means you should stop targeting “simple” topics altogether. You’ll always be able to get some traffic from them. My point is not to be obsessed with ranking for keywords whose days are numbered. Prioritize topics with long-term value instead.
Bonus: 3 SEO trends to ignore in 2024
Not all SEO trends move the needle. Here are just a few of those trends and why you should ignore them.
People are using voice search more than ever
In 2014, Google revealed that 41% of Americans use voice search daily. According to research by UpCity, that number was up to 50% as of 2022. I haven’t seen any data for 2023 yet, but I’d imagine it’s above 50%.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
75% of voice search results come from a page ranking in the top 3, and 40.7% come from a featured snippet. If you’re already optimizing for those things, there’s not much more you can do.
People are using visual search for shopping more than ever
In 2022, Insider Intelligence reported that 22% of US adults have shopped with visual search (Google Lens, Bing Visual Search, etc.). That number is up from just 15% in 2021.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
Much like voice search, there’s no real way to optimize for visual search. Sure, it helps to have good quality product images, optimized filenames and alt text, and product schema markup on your pages—but you should be doing this stuff anyway as it’s been a best practice since forever.
People are using Bing more than ever before
Bing’s Yusuf Mehdi announced in March 2023 that the search engine had surpassed 100M daily active users for the first time ever. This came just one month after the launch of AI-powered Bing.
Why you should ignore this SEO trend
Bing might be more popular than ever, but its market share still only stands at around ~3% according to estimates by Statcounter. Google’s market share stands at roughly 92%, so that’s the one you should be optimizing for.
Plus, it’s often the case that if you rank in Google, you also rank in Bing—so it really doesn’t deserve any focus.
Final thoughts
Keeping your finger on the pulse and taking advantage of trends makes sense, but don’t let them distract you from the boring stuff that’s always worked: find what people are searching for > create content about it > build backlinks > repeat.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter X.
SEO
Mozilla VPN Security Risks Discovered
Mozilla published the results of a recent third-party security audit of its VPN services as part of it’s commitment to user privacy and security. The survey revealed security issues which were presented to Mozilla to be addressed with fixes to ensure user privacy and security.
Many search marketers use VPNs during the course of their business especially when using a Wi-Fi connection in order to protect sensitive data, so the trustworthiness of a VNP is essential.
Mozilla VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN), is a service that hides (encrypts) a user’s Internet traffic so that no third party (like an ISP) can snoop and see what sites a user is visiting.
VPNs also add a layer of security from malicious activities such as session hijacking which can give an attacker full access to the websites a user is visiting.
There is a high expectation from users that the VPN will protect their privacy when they are browsing on the Internet.
Mozilla thus employs the services of a third party to conduct a security audit to make sure their VPN is thoroughly locked down.
Security Risks Discovered
The audit revealed vulnerabilities of medium or higher severity, ranging from Denial of Service (DoS). risks to keychain access leaks (related to encryption) and the lack of access controls.
Cure53, the third party security firm, discovered and addressed several risks. Among the issues were potential VPN leaks to the vulnerability of a rogue extension that disabled the VPN.
The scope of the audit encompassed the following products:
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for macOS
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Linux
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Windows
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for iOS
- Mozilla VPN Qt6 App for Androi
These are the risks identified by the security audit:
- FVP-03-003: DoS via serialized intent
- FVP-03-008: Keychain access level leaks WG private key to iCloud
- VP-03-010: VPN leak via captive portal detection
- FVP-03-011: Lack of local TCP server access controls
- FVP-03-012: Rogue extension can disable VPN using mozillavpnnp (High)
The rogue extension issue was rated as high severity. Each risk was subsequently addressed by Mozilla.
Mozilla presented the results of the security audit as part of their commitment to transparency and to maintain the trust and security of their users. Conducting a third party security audit is a best practice for a VPN provider that helps assure that the VPN is trustworthy and reliable.
Read Mozilla’s announcement:
Mozilla VPN Security Audit 2023
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Meilun
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