What Google multimodal search reporting means for your store

Say someone spots a chair they like in a photo but has no idea what it’s called. They just want one.

For your online store, that could be a chance to reach someone who hasn’t heard of your brand.

Google’s Sept. 24 Search Console update gives businesses a better look at these searches. It adds reporting for searches that start with an image, such as a photo or screenshot.

I’d use it to find products worth a closer look. If shoppers are finding a page, you want that page to make the next step easy.

What multimodal search means

Multimodal search lets someone use an image as part of their search. In Google’s new reporting, that includes Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, images uploaded to Google Search, and Chrome’s image-search feature.

Think about the chair example. A shopper can start with what they see, even when they don’t have a useful product name to type. Your store’s images and product information become part of the experience you need to review.

Why this matters for an online store

If you sell furniture or clothing, appearance can be a big part of why someone wants the product. I’d be interested in whether the pages showing up in these searches are the ones you’d want a new customer to land on.

For example, imagine your dining-chair collection starts getting attention. Someone clicks through looking for the blue chair, but the page opens with a gray version selected. Now they have to work out whether you even sell what they saw.

That’s worth checking. The report can help you choose which pages to review; you still need to open those pages and see what the shopper gets.

How to find the report in Search Console

Choose your dates and review impressions and clicks. Export the data if you want to work through it with your team.

Impressions show that your pages appeared in results; clicks show that someone clicked through. The Image search type is a separate view for results in the Google Images tab, so make sure you have Web: multimodal selected for this review. 

Google began rolling out the reporting globally on Sept. 24, 2026, and says you’ll see metrics when your site receives traffic from these searches. If there isn’t enough data yet, give it time before drawing conclusions.

Start with products you want to sell

Pick one category first. I’d look for products already getting some attention that you can reliably keep in stock. A category with plenty of impressions won’t be much help if shoppers can’t buy what they find.

Review a few products getting clicks, then compare them with similar items in the same category that have little recorded visibility. Look for differences worth investigating, such as whether the main photo clearly shows the product.

Use that comparison to decide what to check next. Low impressions alone won’t tell you why one item appears less often than another.

That’s the thinking behind how we approach SEO at Bytomiq: understand the problem before asking your team to spend time fixing it.

Make the product page easy to shop

A photo can get someone interested. The product page still has to help them buy.

• Show the product they’re buying. For a furniture or apparel item, the primary image should represent what’s for sale. Check that changing the selected color or finish also shows the right photo.
  
• Give images useful descriptions. Alt text is the written description attached to an image. Google recommends helpful descriptions that fit the page. “Blue velvet dining chair with oak legs” is clearer than a string of shopping keywords.
  
• Keep the product details consistent. Ask your team to compare the page’s price and availability with the information sent to the Merchant Center, where you share your product catalog with Google. Google’s product guidance explains how catalog feeds and information on your pages work together.
  
• Try buying on your phone. Select the version you want and add it to the cart. If you have to guess which item you’re buying, make that choice clearer for the next shopper.

If the photos look fine but your team suspects Google can’t access them, ask a developer to check how they’re loaded. Google’s image guidance gives them the technical checks to work through.

Know what the numbers can tell you

The multimodal report won’t give you a list of text queries behind these searches. Google does not make that query data available, so work from the pages showing up in the report. 

The filter also appears in Google’s generative AI performance report, which measures impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. That data is included in the broader Web search reporting, so don’t add the AI impressions to your overall web total. 

Keep clicks separate from sales. The report shows clicks through to your site, but it doesn’t tell you which purchases came from those searches.

After you improve a page, review whether it’s attracting more clicks and check that the shopping experience works as intended. Keep notes on promotions or stock changes during that period, since either can affect what customers do.

Give your team a manageable place to start

Open the report and choose a handful of products to review. You might find a photo problem that needs a small fix, or a repeated issue affecting the whole category.

Once you know what’s happening, you can decide how much work it deserves. If you’d like another set of eyes on what you’re seeing, let’s talk about your store.

Sources

1. Google Search Central — Announcing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console
2. Google Search Console Help — Performance report overview and basic setup
3. Google Search Console Help — Performance report dimensions and data groupings
4. Google Search Console Help — Generative AI performance report for Search
5. Google Search Central — Google image SEO best practices
6. Google Merchant Center Help — Image link attribute
7. Google Search Central — Introduction to Product structured data