Isolating Visual Search Traffic in Google Search Console

Website owners use Google Search Console to see which Google searches bring people to their pages. In the Search results report, Image shows traffic from the Google Images tab. The separate Web: multimodal filter covers searches that start with an image, including Google Lens and Circle to Search on Android.

The filters track different kinds of search activity. Choose Image to analyze traffic from Google Images and Web: multimodal to analyze the image-input searches Google identifies. Google began rolling out multimodal reporting on September 24, 2026, so older instructions that mention only the Image filter do not cover this category. Google’s Search Console documentation describes the report types, and Google’s announcement names the included image-input experiences.

Choose the filter that matches the search

“Visual search” can mean more than one kind of Google search. Search Console’s filter labels show which kind each report measures:

An image appearing in a regular web result does not automatically count as Image traffic. Google records web-search and image-search performance separately, so choose the filter according to the search experience you want to measure. Google has identified specific multimodal experiences, but the categories should not be treated as a complete account of every Google experience involving visual content.

Filter the Search results report

In Search Console, open the correct property and go to Performance → Search results. Choose a date range and open the Search type filter. Select Image for Google Images-tab traffic or Web: multimodal for the listed image-input searches. Select Web: text-based when you need a text-search comparison.

After choosing the search type, use the report’s Pages, Queries, Countries, Devices, or Dates breakdowns to see results by page, query, country, device, or date. For example, compare pages that received multimodal clicks with pages that received Image clicks over the same date range. Add a page, country, or device filter to narrow the results, or export the report for further analysis.

For Image traffic, the Pages table shows which pages people visited after clicking an image result. It does not show which image file they searched for. Google assigns image-search data to the host page’s canonical URL, the URL Google treats as the main address for that page. Google does not separate results for different images on the same page. Check that you are viewing the Search Console property for the page that received the click. If the image is hosted on a different subdomain, it may not appear in that page’s report. Google’s explanation of image performance describes these page and property limits.

Interpret clicks, impressions, and position carefully

Search Console reports clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), and average position. CTR is clicks divided by impressions. Average position is the position of the highest result for the property or page, depending on how the report groups the data.

Google’s Image-tab counting rules affect how those numbers read. An image impression counts when the image has been scrolled into view. Expanding a thumbnail does not count as a click; a click counts when the expanded image or another image link takes someone out of Google Search. If one query shows several images from the same host page, Google records one impression for that page. Image positions run left to right and then top to bottom, while the number of images per row changes with screen size and image width. As a result, Image average position is a rough indicator of where an image appeared, not a directly comparable blue-link rank. Google’s definitions of impressions, clicks, and position provide the counting details.

Google has not documented equivalent counting details for Web: multimodal in the announcement of that report category. Avoid assuming that its impressions or clicks follow the Image-tab rules. The report also does not establish that query details reveal the original image or identify whether a visit came from Lens rather than Circle to Search.

Account for reporting limits

Search Console data is normally available within two to three days. Google can update the newest data as it processes it, and it omits some queries for privacy. Applying query or URL filters can produce totals that differ from the report’s headline totals. Google’s Search Console data notes explain these delays and omissions.

A report export includes the data shown in the report, with up to 1,000 representative rows. The headline totals can include activity beyond those visible rows, so the export is not necessarily a complete list of queries or pages. Google’s export documentation describes this limit.

Search Console clicks and analytics sessions also measure different events. Search Console counts clicks from Google Search, while analytics tools record visits based on their coverage and processing rules. Differences in time zones, privacy, and tracking rules also affect the totals. Compare trends and explain the measurement differences rather than treating the totals as interchangeable.

The Search Analytics API supports scripted reporting, but its documented search-type values include web and image without listing multimodal. Those documented values do not confirm that the API accepts a separate multimodal request. Check the current API reference or test the API before building a report that depends on that filter. The Search Analytics API reference documents its supported request values.

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