Search Console can now show you how often people find your site by searching with a picture instead of typing. Pick the new “Web: multimodal” search type in the Performance report and you see traffic from Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and Chrome’s right-click “Search this image.” Everything typed into the regular search bar now sits under “Web: text-based.”
Google announced this on September 24, 2026, and it is rolling out globally. For a small business, it answers a question you could never answer before: when a customer points their phone at a product, a part, a storefront or a finished job, does your website come up?
Here’s what the report counts, where it lives, what it leaves out, and the image SEO that actually earns you more of those camera searches.
What changed in Search Console
The Google Search Central announcement splits “web” search traffic into two buckets. Google’s Performance report help page defines them like this:
| Search type | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Web: text-based | Text queries typed into the standard Google search bar |
| Web: multimodal | Searches where people use images, such as a smartphone camera |
| Image | Results shown in the Google Images tab |
| Video | Results shown in the Google Videos tab |
| News | The News tab and the news results view |
The multimodal bucket covers four entry points, all confirmed in the announcement:
- Google Lens (the camera icon in the Google app and search bar)
- Circle to Search on Android (circling something on screen)
- Image uploads to Google Search
- Chrome’s “Search this image” right-click option
One distinction worth getting straight: multimodal is not the same as the Image tab. The Image filter is people browsing Google Images after typing a query. Multimodal is people starting the search with a picture. Different behaviour, different intent, now reported separately.
Where to find it
- Open Search Console and choose your property.
- Go to Performance, then Search results.
- Click the Search type filter at the top of the report.
- Choose Web: multimodal.
The same filter also appears in the Generative AI performance report, so you can see whether picture searches are landing you inside AI Overviews or AI Mode. If you haven’t looked at that report yet, our guide to Search Console’s AI performance reports walks through it.
To dig further, Google points you to the Export button so you can pull the data into a spreadsheet or your reporting tools.
Two things to expect in the first weeks. The rollout started September 24, so some properties may not have the filter yet. And Google says you’ll only see these metrics if your site is actually receiving traffic from these searches. An empty view on a small site usually means low volume, not a broken setup.
What the report does not tell you
This is useful data. It’s also a narrow window, so read it carefully.
It doesn’t show you the photo. You see that a multimodal search led to your page. You don’t see what the person pointed their camera at. Whether the query column holds anything meaningful for image-started searches isn’t spelled out in Google’s documentation, so don’t assume it will read like your text queries.
It doesn’t split the four sources. Lens, Circle to Search, uploads and Chrome image search all land in one bucket. A rise could come from any of them.
It isn’t in the API yet, as far as we can confirm. The announcement only mentions Export. As of this writing, the Search Analytics API reference lists web, image, video, news, Discover and Google News as types, with no multimodal option. If you pull Search Console into Looker Studio or a dashboard through the API, plan on manual exports for now and check the reference again later.
It doesn’t separate history. There’s no announced backfill, so treat the start of your multimodal data as a fresh baseline rather than comparing it to last year.
It says nothing about conversions. Clicks are clicks. Whether those visitors called you or bought something still lives in GA4 or your call tracking.
Why this matters for small businesses
Camera searches are high intent. Somebody who photographs a broken fitting, a pair of shoes on a stranger, a plant in a neighbour’s yard or a sign on a building wants to know what it is and where to get it. That’s exactly the moment a trades supplier, retailer, nursery, landscaper or clinic wants to show up.
Until now you couldn’t measure it, so most owners ignored it. Now you can watch the number while you improve your images and see whether the work pays off. That makes it worth doing.
Image SEO that helps you show up in camera searches
Google hasn’t published a separate rulebook for Lens. The best guidance is still its image SEO best practices, and those basics carry straight over. Here’s the checklist we’d work through for a small business site.
Use real photos of your real stuff
A camera search is a match against the real world. Stock photos of a generic smiling plumber will never match a photo of a cracked valve. Your own photos of your products, your shop front, your trucks, your finished jobs and the parts you stock are what can match. Shoot them in good light, from more than one angle, at a decent resolution.
Name files like a human would describe them
Google calls the file name a “very light” clue, but it’s free. cedar-deck-railing-vernon.jpg beats IMG_4471.jpg every time. Short, descriptive, hyphenated.
Write alt text that describes the picture
Alt text helps screen reader users first and search engines second. Describe what’s actually in the image in one plain sentence: “Black aluminum fence panel installed along a gravel driveway.” Skip keyword lists. If the photo shows a specific product or model, name it.
Put images next to the words that explain them
Google says it pulls meaning from the page around an image, including captions and headings, and recommends placing images near relevant text. A product photo floating on a page with no description gives Google almost nothing. Put the photo beside the product name, price, specs and a caption.
Use real image elements, not CSS backgrounds
Google states plainly that it doesn’t index CSS background images. If your best work photos sit in a background slider, Google likely can’t see them. Use a normal image element (a picture element wrapper is fine).
Add structured data
Markup tells Google what the page is about, which gives your images context:
- Product markup for anything you sell, with an image, name, price and availability. See Google’s product structured data docs.
- LocalBusiness markup on your home and contact pages, including your logo and a photo of your location.
Submit an image sitemap
An image sitemap helps Google find images it might otherwise miss, especially ones loaded by scripts or in galleries. If you host images on a CDN, Google allows those URLs in an image sitemap too.
Serve fast, modern formats
Google Search supports AVIF and WebP alongside JPEG and PNG. They’re much smaller at the same quality, which helps your page speed on the phones people use for camera searches. Keep the file extension matching the real format. Our guide to AVIF, WebP and responsive images covers the setup.
Quick audit checklist
| Check | Pass looks like |
|---|---|
| Photo source | Your own product, location or job photos |
| File names | Descriptive and hyphenated, no camera defaults |
| Alt text | One plain sentence describing what’s shown |
| Placement | Image sits beside the text that explains it |
| Markup | Product and LocalBusiness structured data where relevant |
| Discovery | Images in real image elements, listed in a sitemap |
| Format | AVIF or WebP, sized for the screen |
How to use the data once it shows up
Give it a few weeks to build. Then:
- Compare multimodal to text-based by page. Switch the search type and look at the Pages tab. Pages that do well in camera searches but not text ones are telling you something about which images people recognize.
- Find the pages with images but no multimodal traffic. Those are your audit candidates. Run them through the checklist above.
- Improve a handful of pages, then watch. Fix file names, alt text, captions and markup on five product or service pages, note the date, and check the trend a month later.
- Export monthly. Since there’s no API option we could confirm, a monthly export keeps your history in one place.
FAQ
What is “Web: multimodal” in Search Console?
It’s a search type filter in the Performance report that shows traffic from searches people start with an image instead of typed words. Google says it includes Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, images uploaded to Google Search, and Chrome’s “Search this image” option. Typed searches now sit under “Web: text-based.”
How do I track Google Lens traffic to my website?
Open Search Console, go to Performance, then Search results, and set the Search type filter to “Web: multimodal.” Lens traffic is included there, but it’s combined with Circle to Search, image uploads and Chrome image search, so you can’t isolate Lens on its own.
Why don’t I see any multimodal data?
The rollout began on September 24, 2026, so some properties may still be waiting. Google also says data appears only if your site is receiving traffic from these searches. Low-volume sites may see little or nothing at first, which is a signal to improve your images rather than a setup problem.
Is the multimodal report the same as Google Images traffic?
No. The Image search type covers people browsing the Google Images tab after a text search. Multimodal covers searches that start with a picture, like pointing a phone camera at something. They’re reported separately.
Does image SEO help with Google Lens?
Google hasn’t published Lens-specific ranking rules, but its general image guidance applies: real, high-quality photos, descriptive file names and alt text, images placed near relevant text, structured data, and image sitemaps. Now that multimodal traffic is measurable, you can see whether those improvements move the number.
What we’d do this week
Check the new filter first. If you have multimodal traffic, export it and note your baseline. If you don’t, pick your five most valuable product or service pages and run the checklist: real photos, honest file names, plain alt text, captions, markup.
TheBomb® has been building and optimizing small business websites from Spallumcheen, BC since 2014, for clients across Canada and the US. If you’d like a second set of eyes on your images and Search Console data, see our SEO services, grab a free website audit, or get in touch.
