How Indian Websites Can Use Google Search Console’s Multimodal Search Data

Smartphone using visual search beside a laptop showing product images and website performance analytics

Published 3 October 2026

People no longer search only by typing words into Google. They may photograph a product, circle an object on an Android phone, upload an image or use Google Lens to identify something they want to buy or learn about. For Indian businesses, this creates another reason to treat website images as useful search assets rather than decoration.

Google has introduced a multimodal search type filter in Search Console performance reports. The filter is designed to show data from visual search experiences such as Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads to Google Search and Chrome’s “Search this image” feature. The availability of data depends on whether Google has recorded relevant activity for your property.

This is not a promise of higher rankings or guaranteed traffic. It is a measurement opportunity: you can identify which pages and images are being discovered visually, then improve the experience for people who arrive from those searches.

What multimodal search data can tell you

Traditional Search Console reports help you review impressions, clicks, click-through rate and average position for queries and pages. Multimodal reporting adds context around searches where the user’s input includes an image or visual understanding.

For example, an online saree store may receive visual-search impressions for a product photograph even when the user did not type the exact product name. A furniture business may discover that room photographs bring visitors to a service page. A Chennai restaurant may find that food images lead users to a menu or reservation page.

The report can help answer practical questions:

Which pages receive impressions from visual searches?
Are product, service or location pages receiving clicks from image-led discovery?
Do visual visitors behave differently from visitors who use text queries?
Which images deserve better descriptions, stronger landing pages or clearer calls to action?

Do not treat the filter as a replacement for normal SEO reporting. Use it alongside page, country, device and date comparisons. Search Console remains the main source for Google Search performance, while analytics tools are more useful for understanding what visitors do after they arrive.

How to check the report in Search Console

Open the verified property for your website in Google Search Console.
Open the Performance report for Search results.
Look for the search-type controls and select the multimodal search option if it is available for your property.
Compare clicks and impressions by page, country and date range.
Export the report if you need to share it with an agency, developer or ecommerce team.

The report may contain little or no data for smaller websites. That does not necessarily mean the site is technically broken. It may simply mean that Google has not recorded enough qualifying visual-search activity. Avoid making major decisions from a very small sample.

For Indian businesses, use country filters where appropriate. A business serving Chennai, Bengaluru or multiple Indian cities should compare its visual-search data with enquiries, calls, WhatsApp conversations and sales. A click is useful, but the commercial value depends on whether the landing page answers the visitor’s next question.

Improve the images that matter most

Start with pages that already show visual-search impressions or clicks. Review the image and the page together rather than optimising the image in isolation.

Use descriptive, relevant image context

Give each important image a useful filename, meaningful alternative text and nearby explanatory content. For example, “blue-cotton-kurta-chennai.jpg” is more informative than “IMG_4821.jpg” when it accurately describes the image. Alternative text should explain the image’s purpose, not repeat a list of keywords.

Place important images on pages that explain the subject clearly. A product image should be near the product name, specifications, price, availability and delivery information. A service image should be supported by details about the service area, process and contact options.

Make images crawlable and usable

Google’s image guidance recommends helping search engines discover and index images, while also improving the landing pages where those images appear. Check that important images are not hidden behind login screens, blocked by unsuitable robots rules or loaded only after interactions that prevent reliable discovery.

Use appropriate dimensions and compression so images remain clear on mobile connections without making pages unnecessarily heavy. This matters for Indian users who may browse on mobile networks or lower-powered devices. Keep the original image quality high enough for the subject to be understood, but serve a suitably sized version for the layout.

Show more than one useful view

For ecommerce, include practical views such as the front, back, detail, scale and packaging where relevant. For local businesses, use authentic images of the premises, products, team or completed work. Do not use stock images that could mislead visitors about the actual business.

Add structured data where it matches the page

Structured data can provide explicit clues about page content. It does not guarantee a rich result or higher ranking, but accurate markup can help Google understand products, organisations and local businesses.

An ecommerce website should review whether its product pages accurately describe the product name, images, offers, availability and other supported details. If the business has physical premises, relevant pages may also benefit from accurate LocalBusiness structured data, including address, opening hours and contact information.

Before publishing changes, validate the markup and inspect representative URLs. Confirm that the structured data describes visible page content and that image URLs are accessible. Do not add fake reviews, incorrect prices, irrelevant properties or markup that exists only to influence search appearance.

Turn visual-search findings into a work plan

Once you have collected enough data, prioritise changes using a simple three-level process:

High priority: pages with visual impressions but weak clicks, unclear images, missing product information or slow mobile experiences.
Medium priority: pages with impressions and clicks but poor enquiry or purchase performance.
Low priority: pages with no meaningful visual-search activity and no clear business reason to prioritise image work.

For a WordPress or WooCommerce site, this may mean reviewing media-library filenames, image alternative text, product-gallery consistency, caching, responsive image sizes and structured-data output from the site’s SEO or ecommerce setup. Test changes on a small group of pages first. Keep a record of what changed and compare results after Google has had time to recrawl and process the pages.

Also check the complete visitor journey. A user who discovers a product through an image may expect clear pricing, delivery information, payment options, returns, stock status and an easy way to contact the business. A visually attractive image cannot compensate for an incomplete or confusing landing page.

HostCupid perspective

For Indian website owners, multimodal search is best approached as an operational improvement rather than a short-term SEO trick. Keep images authentic, pages accessible, structured data accurate and hosting resources suitable for the site’s real traffic and media library. Review Search Console regularly, but connect its findings to enquiries, sales and customer questions before deciding what to change.

Whether a site runs on WordPress, WooCommerce or a custom application, the same principle applies: make the image discoverable, make the page useful and make the next action obvious.

Sources

Sources checked: 3 October 2026. AI-assisted research and drafting; published by HostCupid’s automated editorial workflow.