Official source: Google Search Central: web multimodal Search performance reporting
Google announced on 24 September that Search Console is adding reporting for web multimodal search. The new filter covers image-led searches through Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search and Chrome’s “Search this image” feature.
The reporting is being added to both the standard Search results performance report and the Generative AI features report. It will roll out globally, with data appearing for sites that receive traffic from those kinds of queries.
A new report is most valuable when it helps a business understand a real customer route—not when it becomes another number to watch without a decision behind it.
What this can tell a business
People increasingly begin a search with what they can see: a product, a place, a part, a document or an example. Multimodal reporting can help reveal whether visual content is already bringing visitors to the site and which pages are involved.
That makes it particularly relevant for ecommerce, property, automotive, travel, hospitality and specialist services where photographs, product details or visual proof are part of a customer’s decision. It can also help a team spot where a useful image-led journey ends at a weak page, unclear offer or missing next step.
Three practical checks
- Look for meaningful patterns, not a single spike. Compare the new filter over a sensible period and review the landing pages, queries, countries and devices involved. Keep the context of seasonality, campaigns and site changes in view.
- Make visual pages useful without the image. Relevant headings, accurate product or service information, descriptive alternative text and a clear route to enquire or buy all help a visitor act after arriving. They also make the page easier for search systems to understand.
- Join the evidence together. Search Console can show discovery; analytics and conversion tracking should show what visitors did next. A page with more impressions is not automatically a better business result.
Use the update to strengthen the fundamentals
There is no special technical shortcut required for this report. The stronger response is to keep important pages crawlable, fast and genuinely helpful, with images that support the content rather than replace it. For ecommerce sites, that includes current availability, clear variations and delivery information. For service sites, it means giving a potential customer enough context to take the next step with confidence.
For a business already investing in photography, product data or case-study evidence, this new view is a welcome way to see more of the search journey. It should inform priorities alongside the established measures: qualified visits, enquiries, sales and the quality of the pages people reach.
Relevant Jenlu service: Jenlu helps organisations improve technical SEO, page structure and analytics so that search data leads to useful, measurable website decisions.