Visual discovery is becoming measurable instead of anecdotal. Google Search Console now reports web multimodal search traffic, giving site owners a clearer view of visits that begin with an image rather than a typed query. That includes discovery through Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and Chrome’s “Search this image” feature.
This guide explains how to isolate the data, interpret it without overclaiming, and turn it into a practical image and landing-page improvement plan. The goal is not to chase a new acronym. It is to understand which pages earn visual discovery and make those pages more useful.
What multimodal search reporting shows
Google announced that the new multimodal search type is available in the Performance reports for Search results and generative AI features. According to the official Google Search Central announcement, the filter is rolling out globally and appears when a property receives eligible traffic.
The report uses familiar Search Console metrics: clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position. The difference is the discovery method. A person may photograph a product, circle an object on a screen, upload an image, or search from an existing image. Search Console groups eligible activity under the multimodal search type so it can be reviewed separately from conventional web or image-search traffic.
Do not treat the report as a complete record of every visual interaction. Search Console applies its normal privacy, aggregation, and data-availability rules. Low-volume properties may see little or no data. Multimodal searches also rely heavily on images, so the query dimension is not available for this traffic. Focus analysis on landing pages, countries, devices, dates, and outcomes.
How to create a useful baseline
Open the relevant Search Console property, go to Performance, select Search results or Generative AI features, and apply the multimodal search type filter. Use a date range long enough to reduce daily noise. For a new report, start with the longest comparable period available, then export the data so the first review becomes a documented baseline.
Record the property, report, date range, filters, and export date. This matters when several teams use different domains, subdomains, or Search Console properties. If social or video accounts are managed through platform properties, keep that work separate from website analysis; SEO Shout’s guide to Search Console platform properties explains that reporting setup.
| Review area | What to compare | Possible next action |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | Impressions, clicks, CTR, position | Review the page’s main images, copy, and next step |
| Devices | Mobile versus desktop visibility | Test mobile image clarity, speed, and tap targets |
| Countries | Demand and engagement by market | Check local relevance, language, stock, and service coverage |
| Time | Trend before and after meaningful changes | Annotate launches and wait for enough data before judging |
| Conversions | Qualified actions from landing pages | Improve the page journey, not visibility alone |
Read the page pattern before changing images
Sort the Pages view by impressions to find pages that are repeatedly surfaced. Then compare clicks and CTR. A high-impression, low-click page may have weak visual relevance, an unclear result context, or a landing page that does not promise the next useful step. A lower-impression page with strong engagement may reveal a format worth applying elsewhere.
Group pages by purpose: product, service, location, guide, gallery, case study, or support content. Patterns are more useful than isolated winners. For example, product-detail pages may need clean subject photography, while service pages may benefit from original process visuals, diagrams, or before-and-after evidence. A technical and content SEO audit can connect these observations to crawlability, indexing, templates, and page quality.
Do not assume that the largest image caused the impression. Search Console reports the destination page, not a guaranteed winning asset or a complete visual query. Use the data to create a shortlist, then inspect the page, its images, surrounding text, metadata, and mobile experience.
Improve visual eligibility and landing-page usefulness
Google’s image SEO best practices emphasise discoverable images and well-optimised landing pages. Use standard HTML image elements, allow Google to crawl the image and page, and place important visuals near relevant text. Write descriptive filenames and useful alt text that explains the image in context rather than repeating a keyword list.
Choose images that genuinely help the visitor identify, compare, understand, or act. Original product angles, step-by-step screenshots, labelled diagrams, location-specific photography, and evidence-led case-study visuals usually provide more information than generic stock imagery. Compress files without making details unreadable and test the rendered result on mobile.
The destination page still has to work. Align the title, visible heading, image, supporting copy, and call to action with the page’s purpose. If image-heavy templates are slow, unstable, or hard to navigate, involve the web design and development team before scaling more assets.
Connect visibility to business outcomes
Clicks alone do not prove value. Compare multimodal landing pages with analytics and lead or ecommerce data. Track a small set of outcomes that fit the page: qualified enquiries, product views, add-to-cart actions, bookings, downloads, store-location visits, or assisted conversions.
Use the same discipline applied to broader AI-search reporting. SEO Shout’s framework for measuring AI search visibility separates exposure from useful business results. For multimodal traffic, that means asking whether the visually discovered page satisfies intent and moves the visitor toward a meaningful next action.
Create a monthly scorecard with four layers: visibility, engagement, landing-page quality, and conversion outcome. Add short notes for major image replacements, template releases, structured-data changes, or content updates. Without annotations, normal fluctuations can be mistaken for the effect of a single optimisation.
A practical 30-day workflow
In week one, establish the baseline and select the top landing-page groups. In week two, review discoverability, image quality, page context, mobile rendering, and conversion paths. In week three, update a small test set rather than redesigning every page. In week four, confirm that the revised assets are crawlable, annotate the release, and monitor early signals.
Judge improvements over a sensible period. Search recrawling, reprocessing, demand, and seasonality can all affect results. Keep a control group when possible and avoid changing image, copy, layout, and conversion tracking simultaneously. A focused SEO programme should turn the report into prioritised experiments, not a dashboard that nobody owns.
Multimodal reporting adds a valuable lens to Search Console, but its best use is straightforward: identify pages earning visual discovery, improve the assets and experiences behind them, and measure whether that visibility produces useful outcomes.