On 24 September 2026, Google began splitting the Web search type in Search Console into two views: text-based and multimodal. The multimodal view counts searches where someone used a photo, screenshot or image instead of typed words. For UK shops, parts suppliers and anyone who sells something people can photograph, this is the first time you can see which pages that traffic lands on.
The news itself is small: one new filter. The reason to act is what it shows. Google said in its October 2024 Search update that "Google Lens is now used for nearly 20 billion visual searches every month." Until now, a small business had no clean way to see whether any of that reached its own site.
What exactly changed in Search Console?
Google announced the change on the Search Central blog under the title Announcing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console. According to Search Engine Journal's report from 24 September 2026, the filter covers four entry points: Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and the right-click "Search this image" option in Chrome. The same report quotes Google's Harsh Kharbanda and Moshe Samet saying the update "is designed to give you insights into how your content is surfaced when users search using images."
Search Engine Roundtable reported that the filter appears in both the classic Search results report and the Generative AI features report. That second placement matters, because it means an image-led search that triggers an AI answer can now be tied back to your pages.
Is this new traffic or old traffic with a new label?
Search Engine Roundtable quotes Mueller saying "the data wasn't previously in the counts, the report has new data." That has a practical effect on reporting. If you compare October 2026 against October 2025 on total Web impressions, part of any rise could be counting that did not exist a year ago, not extra demand.
Why can't I see what people searched for?
Search Engine Journal reports Google's explanation: "Because multimodal searches mostly use images rather than text, specific text query data isn't available for this traffic." This is the biggest limitation, and it changes how you read the report.
Read each landing page as a proxy for the photo that was taken. If a product page for a brass door handle earns multimodal impressions, someone probably photographed a handle like it. If a guide on identifying a radiator valve gets them, people are photographing valves. Group pages by product line or problem type and you get a rough demand map without the keywords.
Which UK small businesses should care most?
The pattern behind this is simple. People use Lens when they are looking at something and want to know what it is, where to buy it or how to fix it. A picture of a plant, a shoe, a broken fitting or a paint colour. They rarely use it to find an accountant.
Use this if/then checklist to decide how much effort to put in:
- If you sell physical products online and multimodal impressions are above roughly 5% of your text-based impressions over 28 days, then image quality and product page accuracy now matter for a measurable share of your search traffic. Put this on your monthly list.
- If you are a trade or repair business and multimodal impressions land mostly on guides or help pages, then those pages are catching people at the moment they photograph a problem. Make sure each one has a clear phone number and your service area.
- If you run a restaurant, café or venue, then check whether menu or dish pages appear. If they do, make sure prices and opening hours on those pages are current.
- If you are a professional services firm and see near zero, then note the figure and check again next quarter. Your time is better spent on your local search presence.
- If the filter does not appear at all, then either the rollout has not reached your property or you have no multimodal traffic yet. Search Engine Journal notes that metrics appear only for sites that receive this kind of traffic.
The 5% threshold is our rule of thumb, not a Google figure. It separates a signal worth acting on from background noise for a small site.
What does this look like with real numbers?
Take an illustrative independent homeware shop in York selling online. These are example figures to show the maths, not benchmarks.
Over 28 days, the multimodal view shows 1,800 impressions and 45 clicks, a 2.5% click-through rate, mostly on vase and lamp product pages. The site converts 1.8% of visitors, and the average order is £64.
Current monthly revenue from multimodal clicks: 45 clicks × 1.8% × £64 = about £52 a month, or roughly £622 a year.
Now the owner spends a day on the ten pages with the most multimodal impressions. They reshoot main images on a plain background, write specific file names and alt text, and make sure the product title names the material, colour and size. If click-through rises from 2.5% to 4%, clicks go to 72 a month. Revenue becomes 72 × 1.8% × £64 = about £83 a month, or roughly £995 a year.
That is around £373 of extra annual revenue from one day's work, before counting any gain in text search from the same improvements. If the owner values their time at £30 an hour, six hours costs £180, and the work pays back within about six months. A shop with 40 multimodal impressions a month should skip this entirely, because the same maths produces pennies.
How should I change my images and pages?
None of this is new advice, but the report now lets you measure whether it works. Focus on the pages the filter already shows, not the whole site.
- Main image. One clear shot of the item, filling most of the frame, with no clutter. People photograph things in real rooms, so the item itself needs to be unmistakable in yours.
- File name and alt text. "oak-bedside-table-two-drawer.jpg" beats "IMG_4821.jpg". Alt text should describe the item plainly for someone who cannot see it.
- Title and first line. Name the material, colour, size and model. A Lens user wants to confirm "is this the thing I photographed?" within a second.
- Next step. For retailers, price and stock above the fold. For trades, a phone number and the towns you cover.
If you are also working on how AI answers describe your business, this sits alongside that effort. The distinctions are covered in AEO vs SEO vs GEO vs LLMO for UK small businesses, and a wider check of how AI surfaces present you is what an AI visibility review covers.
What are the trade-offs and limits?
The missing queries mean you cannot tell apart someone who photographed your exact product from someone who photographed a lookalike from another brand. A page can earn impressions for a competitor's item that happens to look like yours. Low click-through on those impressions is not always a problem to fix.
Search Engine Roundtable notes you can use Export to download the data for other tools. That is the reliable route for now. If you rely on a third-party dashboard, check it separately rather than assuming the new view feeds through.
There is also a time cost. For most owners, one monthly export and a 20-minute review is the right level of effort. Anything more only makes sense once the numbers justify it, as the York example shows.
What should I do this week?
- Monday. Open Search Console, go to Performance, select Web and look for the multimodal option. If it is missing, set a reminder for two weeks' time.
- Tuesday. Set the date range to the last 28 days. Export the multimodal view by page. Note total impressions, clicks and click-through rate in your reporting sheet.
- Wednesday. Compare multimodal impressions with text-based impressions. Apply the if/then checklist above to decide whether this is a priority.
- Thursday. Add a dated note to your reporting: "24 Sept 2026, Google split Web into text-based and multimodal." Switch any year-on-year comparisons to the text-based view.
- Friday. If the numbers justify it, list the ten pages with the most multimodal impressions and schedule the image and title fixes. Re-export in 28 days and compare click-through.
Is this part of a bigger shift in how people search?
This filter sits inside the Generative AI features report as well as the classic Search results report. The direction is clear from what Google has shipped: search is splitting into typed, photographed and AI-answered journeys, and Search Console is starting to report each one separately.
For a UK owner, the useful response is not to chase every new surface. Check each new report once, decide with your own numbers whether it matters to your business, and put your hours where the data says customers are. For a retailer with photogenic products, that now includes the camera. For most service firms, it still means reviews, a well-kept Business Profile and a website that turns visits into enquiries. If reviews are part of that, adding reviews to your website is a sensible next step.
Search Console's New Lens and Image Search Report — FAQ
What is the multimodal filter in Google Search Console?
It is a new search type inside the Web section of the Performance report. It counts impressions and clicks from searches where someone used an image, photo or screenshot as the query. That covers Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search and the Chrome right-click Search this image option. Text-only searches now sit under a separate text-based view. Google announced the split on 24 September 2026 and it is rolling out globally, so some properties may not show the option yet. You will only see figures if your site receives multimodal traffic. For a small business, it is the first time you can see, page by page, whether people who photographed something ended up on your website.
Why can't I see search queries for multimodal traffic?
Because the searcher supplied a picture rather than typed words, there is no text query to report. Google stated this directly when it launched the filter, and the Queries tab is unavailable when multimodal is selected. You get page-level data instead. The workaround is to read the landing pages as the query. If a product page for a specific tile, part or plant earns multimodal impressions, the photo people took almost certainly showed that item or something that looks like it. Group pages by product type and you get a usable picture of demand without needing the query text.
Will my Search Console totals change because of this update?
They may. Google's John Mueller said the multimodal data was not previously in the counts, which means it is new data rather than a relabelling of existing web traffic. If your site gets visual search traffic, your total Web figures from late September 2026 onwards may include numbers that older periods never counted. Before you celebrate or panic over a month-on-month change, compare the text-based view against your historical Web totals, because that is the closest like-for-like comparison. Add a note in your reporting spreadsheet dated 24 September 2026 so nobody misreads the change later.
Does a service business with no products need to care about this?
Less than a retailer, but it is still worth a five-minute check. Visual search is strongest where people photograph a physical thing they want to identify, buy or fix. A shop, a parts supplier, a garden centre or a furniture maker is an obvious fit. An accountant or a solicitor will usually see little or nothing. Trades sit in between: someone might photograph a damaged fitting or a boiler label, land on a guide, then call a local engineer. Open the filter once. If your multimodal impressions over 28 days are tiny, note it and revisit next quarter rather than spending time on image work now.
Can I pull multimodal data into Looker Studio or a spreadsheet?
At launch, the practical route is the Export button in the Performance report, which downloads the filtered data for analysis in other tools. Search Engine Journal noted that the Search Analytics API reference does not yet list a separate multimodal search type, so automated dashboards that rely on the API may not pick it up straight away. For most owners a monthly manual export into a spreadsheet is enough. Record pages, impressions and clicks for the multimodal view, then track them alongside your sales or enquiries for the same pages.
