Search behaviour is changing as people discover information through images, screenshots, and visual search tools instead of typing keywords alone. On September 24, 2026, Google announced a new multimodal search reporting feature in Google Search Console. This update helps website owners understand how their content appears when users search using images. For SEO professionals, Google Search Console Multimodal Search reporting offers a new way to analyse visual search performance, identify opportunities, and improve website visibility.
What Is Multimodal Search in Google?
Multimodal Search in Google allows users to discover information using images instead of relying only on text. For example, someone can take a picture of a product, upload a screenshot, or use Google Lens to find related information online. Circle to Search on Android and Chrome’s “Search this image” feature also support image-based discovery.
This approach allows users to search for products, places, objects, and other information using visual inputs. As search experiences evolve, businesses need to understand how their website content performs when images become the starting point of a search.
Understanding the New Google Search Console Updates
One key Google Search Console Update is the introduction of a multimodal search filter in the Performance reports. Website owners can use this filter to analyse performance associated with image-based searches separately from text-based web searches.
Google’s announcement confirms that the feature covers Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and Chrome’s “Search this image” feature. The filter is available in the Search results Performance report and the Generative AI features Performance report. Google began rolling out this feature globally on September 24, 2026.
This update gives marketers additional information about how users discover their content. Instead of analysing only traditional keyword performance, SEO teams can also investigate visibility through visual search experiences.
How to Access Multimodal Search Tracking
Website owners can follow these steps to check their multimodal search performance:
- Sign in to Google Search Console and select your website property.
- Open the Performance section and select Search results.
- Click the Search type filter at the top of the report.
- Select the multimodal option under Web search.
- Review the available performance metrics and open the Pages tab to identify relevant URLs.
- Export the report to analyse the data in a spreadsheet or other reporting tools.
The multimodal filter is also available in the Generative AI features Performance report. Data will appear when your website receives qualifying traffic from these search experiences. If you do not see any data, your site may not yet have measurable traffic from multimodal searches.
Why Multimodal SEO Matters for Businesses
Multimodal SEO focuses on making website content useful and discoverable across search experiences that involve images and other visual inputs. Businesses with product catalogues, travel websites, food blogs, real estate pages, and educational content may benefit from paying closer attention to visual search.
For example, a person looking at a chair may use Google Lens to find similar furniture online. If a furniture website has relevant product images and helpful descriptions, its pages may appear in the search results. The new report can help the website owner identify which pages receive impressions and clicks through these searches.
However, the report does not guarantee higher rankings. Its main benefit is providing additional performance data that helps businesses evaluate their existing content and decide where optimisation may be useful.
How to Improve Image Search SEO
Image Search SEO helps search engines understand visual content and gives users a better experience. Businesses can improve their image optimisation by following these practices.
Use descriptive alt text: Write clear, accurate descriptions of images. Alt text should explain the image’s purpose rather than contain a list of keywords.
Choose meaningful filenames: Use descriptive filenames that explain the image content instead of generic names such as “IMG001.jpg”.
Publish high-quality images: Use clear, relevant images that accurately represent your product, service, or topic. For ecommerce websites, photographs showing products from useful angles can help customers understand what they are viewing.
Add relevant surrounding content: Include useful headings, captions, and supporting text so visitors can understand how the image relates to the page.
Optimise image performance: Compress images appropriately and use suitable formats to help pages load efficiently without significantly reducing image quality.
These practices support Visual Search Optimization and improve accessibility and usability. They also help businesses build a stronger foundation for visual content discovery.
The Role of AI Search Optimization
AI Search Optimization is becoming an important consideration as search experiences evolve. Users increasingly expect search engines to understand images, context, and the information behind their searches.
Businesses can prepare by publishing helpful content, maintaining technically accessible websites, and ensuring that images accurately represent the subjects discussed on their pages. Combining relevant visuals with informative text can make website content more useful to visitors and easier for search engines to interpret.
Although multimodal reporting provides additional insights, it does not guarantee visibility in AI-generated results. Businesses should continue following established SEO practices while adapting to changing search behaviour.
Using the Google Search Performance Report Effectively
The Google Search Performance Report helps website owners understand how their content appears in search results and how users interact with it. With multimodal reporting, marketers can examine page-level performance from image-based searches and compare it with other available search data.
Consider an online furniture store that notices several product pages receiving multimodal impressions and clicks. The team can review those pages to check image quality, descriptions, product details, and the overall landing-page experience. It can then monitor performance to see whether future improvements are associated with positive changes.
One important limitation is that the usual text-query data is unavailable when the multimodal filter is selected because these searches primarily use images rather than typed queries. The report also does not reveal the exact image used by the searcher. Therefore, page-level analysis is particularly valuable.
Regular Google Search Analytics reviews can help businesses identify patterns and make informed decisions. Marketers should also remember that impressions and clicks are different metrics: increased visibility does not automatically mean more conversions or sales.
How Eleven:11 Services Can Help
Eleven:11 Services helps businesses strengthen their online presence through digital marketing strategies, SEO, and content optimisation. With the introduction of Google Search Console Multimodal Search reporting, businesses have another opportunity to understand how their website pages and images appear in search results.
Eleven:11 Services can help businesses improve image SEO, optimise website content, monitor search performance, and develop data-driven SEO strategies. By focusing on relevant keywords, descriptive image alt text, useful content, and ongoing performance analysis, businesses can make more informed decisions and adapt to changing search behaviour.
Explore Eleven:11 Services to learn how its digital marketing solutions can support your business’s online growth.
Conclusion
Google Search Console Multimodal Search reporting gives website owners another way to understand how users discover their content through images. By reviewing performance data and improving image quality, alt text, page content, and website accessibility, businesses can strengthen their approach to Multimodal SEO.
Keeping up with SEO Trends and Updates is important, but successful optimisation still depends on providing useful content and a good user experience. By combining reliable reporting with practical SEO improvements, businesses can better understand visual search behaviour and build a stronger online presence.