Since 24 September 2026, Search Console splits web performance into “text-based” and “multimodal”, so you can finally see clicks and impressions from searches that start with an image, such as Google Lens and Circle to Search. Together with the AI performance report from June and platform properties for social and video content from July, it gives a much fuller picture of how people actually find you in 2026.
What multimodal reporting is
Google announced web multimodal Search performance reporting on 24 September 2026 and began rolling it out globally. In the Performance report, the Web search type now has two options:
- Web: text-based for typed searches.
- Web: multimodal, which Google’s help page defines as web search results where an image was used as part of the search, as reported by Search Engine Roundtable.
Multimodal covers Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, images uploaded to Google Search and Chrome’s right-click “Search this image”. The filter appears in both the classic Search results report and the Generative AI features report.
What you can and can’t see
| You can see | You can’t see |
|---|---|
| Which pages receive visual-search traffic | The image or query people searched with |
| Clicks and impressions by country and device | Which product or object Lens recognised |
| Visual-search appearances inside AI features | Data from before the rollout |
A caution on timing: Google’s September 2026 spam update started the same day, so changes in late September data may have more than one cause. See our breakdown of the September 2026 spam update.
The three new Search Console views in 2026
| Report | Launched | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Generative AI performance | June 2026 | Impressions in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover AI features. Guide: how to read the AI performance report |
| Platform properties | Rolled out globally July 2026 | How your content on social and video platforms performs in Search. Deep dive: Search Console platform properties |
| Web: multimodal | September 2026 | Traffic from image-led searches such as Lens and Circle to Search |
Read together, they describe one shift: search is no longer only a typed query leading to a blue link. It starts from cameras, social posts and AI answers, and Search Console is catching up.
Who should care most
- E-commerce: people photograph products they see and want to buy. Product pages can pick up meaningful visual-search traffic.
- Local businesses: storefronts, dishes, landmarks and signage are classic Lens targets.
- Recipes, plants, fashion, home and DIY: anything people point a camera at to identify.
- Purely text topics (like most SEO blogs) will see little; that’s normal, not a problem.
How to improve visual-search visibility
- Use original images of your real products, places and work. Stock photos match thousands of other pages.
- Show multiple angles and contexts, the way people would actually photograph the item.
- Place images next to the text that describes them, with descriptive file names and alt text naming the entity.
- Add structured data such as Product or LocalBusiness so the page’s entity is unambiguous; see schema markup for semantic SEO.
- Make the entity clear on the page. Visual search still has to resolve what it sees to a known thing; entity SEO and visual semantic SEO cover how.
A monthly check
Each month, export Web: multimodal by page for the last 28 days and compare it with Web: text-based. Pages with a high multimodal share are telling you which of your images people search with; give those pages better images and clearer product details. Repeat the same split in the Generative AI features report to see whether visual searches lead to AI citations.
Frequently asked questions
What is multimodal search in Google Search Console?
It is a search type, added on 24 September 2026, that reports web search results where an image was used as part of the search, such as Google Lens, Circle to Search, image uploads and Chrome’s Search this image.
Does Search Console show the images people searched with?
No. Multimodal reporting shows pages, clicks, impressions, countries and devices, but not the image or query used.
Is multimodal data included in the AI performance report?
Yes. The text-based and multimodal split appears in both the Search results Performance report and the Generative AI features report.
How do I get more traffic from Google Lens?
Use original images of real products and places, place them beside descriptive text, use clear file names and alt text, and add structured data so the entity on the page is unambiguous.