Google Adds Multimodal Search Reporting to Search Console
Google has started rolling out a new “multimodal” filter in Search Console. It lets site owners separate performance from searches that begin with an image instead of a typed query.
What Google confirmed
Google announced the update on September 24, 2026. The company says the reporting is rolling out globally. A property will only show metrics when it receives traffic from these types of queries.
The data can be filtered inside the performance reports and exported for analysis. This gives SEO and content teams a clearer way to see whether pages receive impressions and clicks from visual discovery.
This announcement is a product release, not a research study. It provides no sample, conversion benchmark or estimate of how much traffic a site should receive. Google also does not say that the new report changes rankings. It measures traffic that already exists.
Why the report matters
Visual search can begin with a phone camera, a screenshot or an uploaded image. A shopper might scan a chair, circle a shoe in a photo or search from a product image in Chrome. Until now, this activity was harder to separate from other search performance.
The new filter can help teams identify which landing pages and image-led topics attract this demand. It can also help distinguish a real visual-search pattern from a general change in web search traffic.
What to check in Search Console
- Open the relevant performance report. Apply the multimodal search-type filter. If it is empty, do not assume the feature is broken; Google says data appears only for properties receiving traffic from these queries.
- Compare pages, countries, devices and dates. Look for repeatable patterns across more than one short period. A few impressions do not establish a trend.
- Export the data. Keep a dated baseline before changing images, page copy or templates.
- Review landing-page intent. Check whether the page answers the likely question behind the image, such as product identity, specifications, availability or how an item is used.
How to improve image context responsibly
Use clear, original images that represent the page accurately. Place useful text near the image and write alt text that describes what the image shows. Keep product names, variants and availability consistent between the page and structured data.
These practices improve clarity and accessibility, but they do not guarantee multimodal visibility. The report can show correlation between changes and performance; it cannot prove that one edit caused a ranking or conversion change. Test changes in groups, record dates and compare a long enough period to reduce noise.
Source checked September 28, 2026: Google Search Central Blog, “Announcing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console,” September 24, 2026. The rollout is global, but individual properties may show no data.