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Image SEO

Image SEO is the work that helps Google find and understand the photos on a store's pages, so they can appear in Google Images, Google Lens and search results.

How it works

Google finds a photo through the src attribute of an <img> element. Google doesn’t index a photo set as a CSS background. An image sitemap lists photos Google might otherwise miss, such as ones loaded by JavaScript.

To work out what a photo shows, Google combines computer vision with the page around it: alt text (a text description in the HTML), captions, nearby text and, as a very light clue, the file name. Google calls alt text the most important attribute. With structured data, Google can show the photo in rich results in Google Images.

For Google Lens, products also need to be in Merchant Center and opted in to free listings. Photos are often the largest part of a page’s size, so they weigh on page speed: Google asks for optimised, responsive images sized for each screen.

Our guide to product page SEO covers the rest of the page.

Where you see it

  • Search Console, Performance report: set the search type to Image to see clicks and impressions from Google Images.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop uploaded its photos as IMG_0457.jpg with no alt text. Now the blue mug’s photo is blue-ceramic-mug-350ml.jpg with the alt text “Blue ceramic mug, 350 ml”. On the Slovak site the file name is translated as well: modry-keramicky-hrncek-350ml.jpg. For 3,000 products the names come from one template: colour, material, product, volume.

Not to be confused with

  • Product image — the photo sent in the feed to Merchant Center for Shopping ads and free listings, with its own requirements. Image SEO is about photos on the store’s own pages.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “The photo is on the page, so Google sees it.” Right: Google reads the src of <img> and doesn’t index a CSS background image.
  • Wrong: “More keywords in the alt text, more image traffic.” Right: Google asks for a description in the context of the page; a keyword list is a poor experience and may get the site seen as spam.

Sources