How to do a reverse image search to check for copyright infringements

How to do a reverse image search to check for copyright infringements.

So you’ve found the perfect image online on a free image website and you want to double check the image to search for other uses online. If you are wondering how to do a reverse image search read on!.
One reason you might want to double check the image is to make sure that the image originated from a paid image site and was illegally uploaded and distributed on a free image site, as that could get you into big trouble and even put your KDP account at risk.
Another reason might be that loads of other people have already used the free image, which could get your KDP account pinged for duplicate content.

This is when a reverse image search is super helpful because it allows you to search for the actual image online so you can be reassured about the original source, and can see exactly who else is using the image and what for.

In this post, I will explain what a reverse image search is and how to do one.

What is a reverse image search?

A reverse image search lets you to search with an image and find where it was originally published and where else it has been published on the web.

So it works just like a text based search on Google or other search engines but instead of putting text in the search box you input an image instead.

The results turned up by a reverse image search show a list of search results, just like a normal text query, with a list of the pages where the image has been found.

How do I do a reverse image search?

There are several ways to do a reverse image search depending on whether you are on a mobile device or laptop. I usually use Google on my laptop.

How to reverse image search on Google on a laptop

So let’s look at how you can do a reverse image search on Google on a laptop

Open the Google Images search page and click on the camera icon in the search bar.

This will give you a new search display offering you two options.

1 – ‘Paste Image URL’, which allows you to use the URL of an image on the internet.

2- ‘Upload an image’, which allows you to upload an image from your computer to use as the search query.

Whichever option you choose to do, you simply click search to display the results.

How to reverse image search using the Google Chrome browser

If you are using Chrome as your browser, there is an even easier way to do a reverse image search.

Right click on any image on the web.
This brings up a menu
Select ‘Search with Google Lens’
Google will display results as shown below

How to do a reverse image search in Google Chrome browser: Right click on any image on the web

How to do a reverse image search in Google Chrome browser:

How to do a reverse image search on a mobile device?

A reverse image search on a mobile device is a little more tricky . You need to have the Google Chrome app installed on your device.
Whilst browsing the web from the Chrome app you can click and hold on any image until a menu pops up- scroll to the bottoms and click ‘search Google for this image’ which will turn up the image results instead.

I found the short video below from SemRush super helpful if you prefer to watch rather than read…..