On September 24, Google introduced a new web multimodal filter in Search Console’s Performance reports. It is designed to show how a website appears when a person uses an image as part of a web search—for example through Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, an uploaded image, or Chrome’s “Search this image” feature. The rollout is global, but a site will only see the data if it receives traffic from those kinds of searches. Google’s announcement explains that the filter is available in Search results and Generative AI-feature performance reporting.

For a Santa Barbara business, this is useful because it turns a previously invisible kind of discovery into something that can be reviewed. It is not a new ranking score. It is not a reason to replace practical local SEO with a photo shoot. It is simply a new way to see whether people are reaching your website through visual search behavior.

What the new report actually measures

Search Console already helps site owners review clicks, impressions, click-through rate, average position, queries, and pages. The new filter separates web multimodal activity from traditional text-query web activity. Google’s Performance report documentation explains the available metrics and dimensions.

That distinction matters. A person may not begin with a typed search such as “Santa Barbara custom tile.” They may see a tile pattern, a product, a storefront detail, a plant, a dish, or a piece of equipment and use an image to explore it. If Google surfaces a page from your site in that journey and the person clicks, the new filter can help you see the signal.

The report does not tell a business that every image on its site is performing well. It does not prove that a particular photo caused a sale. And a new or small site may have too little activity for useful conclusions. Treat it as a diagnostic view, not a promise.

Which local businesses may find it most useful

The report is likely to be most interesting where a customer’s first question is visual. A retailer may want to know whether product or collection pages are being discovered through images. A restaurant, hotel, venue, designer, contractor, florist, landscape company, jeweler, or home-service business may have visual examples that help a prospective customer understand the work before they know the exact words to search.

That does not make visual search a separate local-ranking formula. Google says local results are mainly driven by relevance, distance, and prominence. Complete and accurate Business Profile information still helps Google understand what a business does and where it operates. Reviews, helpful replies, and photos can help a prospective customer evaluate the business as well. Google’s local ranking guidance describes those fundamentals.

The more useful point is simpler: if a business relies on visual proof to earn trust, its website should make that proof easy for people and search systems to understand.

Start with a baseline before changing anything

Open Search Console’s Performance report and use the new web multimodal search-type filter. Then compare a recent period with the period before it. Google’s announcement recommends exporting the data if you want to analyze it in other tools.

  • Which pages receive multimodal impressions or clicks?
  • Are those pages the ones that represent the business well?
  • Do the search queries and page topics match the customers the business wants to reach?

A few impressions are not a mandate to redesign a site. They are an invitation to look more closely. If the traffic reaches an old gallery page, an unhelpful service page, or an image-heavy page with little explanation, that is a practical place to improve the customer experience.

Two Santa Barbara small-business colleagues reviewing product photographs and website imagery at a laptop
Useful images work best when the page also explains the service, product, or proof a customer is seeing.

Make the images useful on the page, not just attractive in a gallery

The best response is usually not “add more images.” It is to make the images already on the site do a clearer job.

Google recommends using standard HTML image elements so images can be discovered, keeping images high-quality while optimizing them for speed, and placing them near relevant page text. It also recommends short, descriptive filenames and useful alt text that describes the image in context. Google’s image SEO guidance explains these practices.

For a local business, that can mean replacing a file called IMG_4938.jpg with a clearer filename, such as santa-barbara-custom-tile-kitchen-installation.jpg. It can mean placing a real project image beside an explanation of the service, materials, location, or result. It can mean giving the image accessible alt text that describes what a visitor needs to know instead of repeating a list of keywords.

A generic stock image may make a page look finished. A relevant image with nearby, specific text can make the page more credible and easier to understand.

Keep the business facts connected

Visual discovery works best when the rest of the business information agrees with it. If a visitor reaches a page about Santa Barbara wedding florals, the page, the website navigation, and the Google Business Profile should not create uncertainty about the service, the service area, or how to contact the business.

Google’s guidance for AI features makes the same point from another direction. There is no special markup required to qualify for AI Overviews or AI Mode. The established basics still matter: indexable pages, helpful people-first content, important information in text, quality images where they are useful, structured data that matches visible text, and current Business Profile information. Google’s AI-features guidance describes the requirements.

That is good news for local businesses. The work is not about a separate “AI image SEO” checklist. It is about making the website’s words, images, business details, and proof of work point to the same clear answer.

A practical 30-day check

During the next month, choose one meaningful visual area of the website. It might be a project gallery, a product collection, a before-and-after page, a service portfolio, or a location page.

First, record the web multimodal baseline in Search Console. Then review the page as a customer would. Can someone understand what is shown, where the business works, and what next step to take without guessing? Replace the weakest generic images with accurate examples where appropriate. Improve filenames and alt text when they are vague. Confirm that the page loads well on a phone and that the supporting text is actually helpful.

At the end of the period, review the report again. Look for direction, not a miracle. If the visual-search data grows, check whether the right pages are earning the activity. If there is no data, the page may still be doing valuable work for traditional search, referrals, and the customers who already know the business.

The useful takeaway

Google’s new multimodal reporting is a timely reason to take website images seriously. The goal is not to manufacture visual-search traffic. The goal is to make the real work, products, and local expertise of a business easier to discover and easier to trust.

If you would like a clearer view of which service pages, images, and local signals deserve attention first, Santa Barbara SEO can help you turn the data into a practical search plan.

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