A homeowner sees water stains on the ceiling, a wasp nest under the eaves, or an error code on the furnace. More and more, they do not type a description. They point their phone at it and search with the picture.
Until now there was no way to see whether your website showed up in those searches. Search Console lumped everything together. That changed this September.
What Google changed
Search Console now has a multimodal search type filter that separates image-based searches from typed searches.
In its announcement on 24 September 2026, Google said the new data covers four ways people search with images:
- Google Lens
- Circle to Search on Android
- Image uploads to Google Search
- Chrome's right-click "Search this image" option
The data appears in two places: the performance report for Search results, and the report for Generative AI features. It is rolling out globally, and you only see numbers if your site is already getting traffic from these searches.
Why this matters for home service businesses
Visual search is now a separate, measurable way customers find you.
Many home service jobs start with something a customer can see but cannot name. A few examples:
- Roofing: missing or curled shingles, a damaged flashing detail, hail marks.
- Pest control: an insect, droppings, a nest, damaged wood.
- HVAC and plumbing: a leaking water heater, an unfamiliar valve, a thermostat error screen.
- Landscaping and tree service: a diseased tree, a dying lawn patch, a leaning trunk.
- Painting: peeling exterior paint, water damage behind paint, a color the customer wants to match.
If your pages show those problems clearly and explain the fix, they have a chance of appearing when someone searches with a photo. The new report tells you whether that is actually happening.
How to find the multimodal report
- Open Search Console and go to Performance, then Search results.
- Click the Search type filter and choose multimodal.
- Set the date range to the last 3 months so you have a baseline.
- Click Export to download the data for your spreadsheet.
- Repeat in the Generative AI features report, which shows the same search type for AI experiences.
If the report is empty, your site is not getting meaningful traffic from image searches yet. That is a useful baseline too.
What to record every month
Track multimodal performance by landing page, because the report does not tell you which image triggered the visit.
Keep one row per page per month:
| Landing page | Query (if shown) | Impressions | Clicks | CTR | Calls or forms from that page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /roof-repair/ | (often blank for image searches) | from the export | from the export | clicks ÷ impressions | from your call tracking or form tool |
Early write-ups suggest typed query data is often missing for these searches, so expect the query column to be thin. The landing page is the unit that matters. Save the first export as your baseline and do not overwrite it, so you can compare any change you make against it.
What to test on pages with impressions but few clicks
When a page is seen in image searches but rarely clicked, improve what the page shows and says about the problem in the photo.
- Use original photos of your own jobs. Stock images show nothing a customer can match against their own problem.
- Write descriptive captions. "Recent project" says nothing. "Storm-damaged asphalt shingles replaced on a two-story home in Carmel, Indiana" says what, how and where.
- Put relevant copy next to the image. One or two sentences explaining what the photo shows, what causes it, and what the fix involves.
- Keep the service and the location clear on the page. The person who searched with a photo still needs to know you do this job in their area.
- Use the same words everywhere. Name the service, material and condition the same way in the paragraph, the table and the caption.
That last point lines up with separate research. The PILAR study (26 September 2026) found that question-answering systems connected facts better when text, tables and figures used shared names for the same things, although most of the gain came from the text and visual evidence only helped after careful filtering. We covered it in more detail in why AI recommends some contractors almost twice as often.
Change one page at a time and leave it for at least a month before judging the result. Otherwise you will not know which change did what.
What the report cannot tell you
The report measures visibility in image searches. It does not tell you how to rank in them.
- No confirmed ranking factors. Google has not said that any image format, caption or metadata gets a ranking advantage in multimodal search.
- No image-level data. You cannot see which photo on a page produced an impression.
- Only sites with traffic see data. An empty report means no measurable image-search traffic yet, not a broken setup.
Treat captions and photos as experiments, not guaranteed fixes, and judge them by the page-level numbers.
The bottom line
Customers already search with their phone cameras. Now you can see whether your site is part of that. Set a baseline this month, improve the photos and captions on one or two pages that get impressions but few clicks, and compare next month. It is a small habit that turns a blind spot into data.
If you are still deciding what to track in Search Console in general, start with how to tell if your SEO is actually working, and keep an eye on our log of Google local updates for the next change like this one.
Research sources
- Google Search Central Blog: Announcing web multimodal Search performance reporting in Search Console (24 September 2026)
- PILAR: A Page-Grounded Unified Evidence Representation via an Entity-Linked Assertion Graph (26 September 2026)
Frequently asked questions
What is multimodal search in Search Console?
It is a search type filter in the Search Console performance reports that isolates searches made with an image instead of typed words. Google says it covers Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and the Chrome right-click Search this image feature.
Where do I find the multimodal report?
Open the Performance report for Search results, or the report for Generative AI features, and change the search type filter to multimodal. Use Export to download the data. You only see data if your site is receiving traffic from these searches.
Do captions or image file names help me rank in image searches?
Google has not said that any image format, caption or metadata gives a ranking advantage in multimodal search. Descriptive captions and clear surrounding copy are still worth testing because they help people and machines understand what a photo shows, but treat them as an experiment and measure the result.
Does the report show which image brought the visitor?
No. The report does not identify the exact image responsible for an impression. Track results by landing page and compare the page before and after you change its photos and captions.
Is this worth checking for a small contractor business?
Yes, if your work is visual. Roofers, pest control, landscapers, painters and HVAC companies often have customers who photograph a problem before they search. A monthly export takes a few minutes and shows whether any of your pages are being found that way.