Image SEO and Google Lens: how to make your e-commerce visible in visual search

For years, talking about image SEO meant thinking about compression, formats, file names, ALT attributes and page loading speed. All these practices are still necessary, but visual search is expanding the role of images within an SEO strategy. For an e-commerce business, a photograph is no longer simply an asset that accompanies a product page. It can become the starting point for a search and, therefore, a new gateway to the brand.

Google Lens and multimodal search experiences let users start a search without knowing the exact name of what they want to buy. They can take a photo of a pair of trainers, a lamp, a pair of glasses or a padel racket and ask Google to interpret what they are seeing. In this scenario, image SEO connects directly with visual search, product SEO, product data and an e-commerce site's ability to provide a relevant landing page.

The shift became even more significant from 24 September 2026. According to the reference information provided by ATLS, Google Search Console allows users to specifically analyse multimodal searches originating from Google Lens, Circle to Search, images uploaded to Google and "Search this image" in Chrome. This makes it possible to start analysing impressions, clicks, CTR, pages and queries associated with this type of discovery.

The opportunity, therefore, is not simply to add more keywords to ALT text. A genuine image SEO strategy needs to connect the image, product, intent, market, landing page and conversion. And when we talk about international e-commerce, that connection becomes even more relevant: the image may be universal, but commercial intent varies from country to country.

SEO for images: what changes with Google's visual search

Visual search introduces a fundamental difference compared with SEO based solely on text: users don't always need to know what the thing they are looking for is called. A search can begin with a photograph. Google tries to recognise the object, its category, certain visual attributes and related products in order to provide a useful response.

For SEO and e-commerce professionals, the ability to analyse multimodal behaviour provides a new layer of information. Image SEO is no longer a discipline whose impact is difficult to isolate, and it's starting to ask much more specific business questions: which products are being discovered visually, which pages are generating impressions, which queries accompany that discovery and which markets are showing the strongest response.

This means visual search can be analysed as part of the acquisition funnel. An impression in Google Lens is not yet a sale, but it can be the first point of contact between a person and a product whose name they didn't know. The challenge is to ensure that Google correctly understands the product and that the landing page then meets the user's intent.

SEO for images and visual search: how discovery works

Imagine someone sees a pair of trainers in the street and uses Google Lens. They don't know the brand or model. The visual search starts with the image, and Google tries to identify what's shown in it: product type, colour, style, apparent material and visually related items.

However, pixels don't tell the whole story. The reference information indicates that Google also uses page context, titles, captions, alt text and other elements to understand images. That's why image SEO needs to work on the photograph while also addressing the semantic layer around it.

In e-commerce, there is also a commercial dimension. Image, product, price, stock, ratings, delivery and variants can all form part of the information that helps link a visual search to a specific offer. Product structured data and properly maintained commercial information help make the catalogue easier for Google to understand.

The conclusion is important: optimising for visual search doesn't mean looking for some supposed Google Lens SEO trick. It means building a coherent ecosystem in which the image, product page, attributes and product data all describe the same item.

Why visual search also needs international SEO

An image can travel between markets without having to be translated, but intent can't. A padel racket may look exactly the same in Spain, France or Italy, while the way people search for, compare and buy it varies from country to country. This is where image SEO intersects with international SEO.

A user arriving from a visual search should find the right language, the correct currency, actual availability, consistent delivery terms and sales messaging tailored to their market. If Google recognises the product perfectly but directs the user to an experience that isn't relevant, the opportunity is weakened.

A visual search, therefore, does not eliminate keywords. Nor does it eliminate regional architecture, hreflang, localised content or intent research. It expands on them. Google Lens can help identify what the user is looking for, but the landing page still needs to explain why that product is relevant to them in their local context.

In practice, this means that an international image SEO strategy needs to analyse not only which photographs perform well, but also which markets generate visual impressions, which ones generate clicks and where there is a gap between visibility and commercial response.

How to optimise product images for visual search

A good image SEO strategy starts with useful photographs. For a catalogue, this means showing the full product, relevant details, different angles and, where appropriate, the product in a real-life context. An aesthetically pleasing image may work well for branding, but an informative image also provides signals for recognition and purchasing decisions.

The resolution should be high enough to identify visual attributes without turning the page into a slow experience. Quality and performance are not opposing goals: the technical work should aim to strike a balance between sufficiently detailed images and efficient delivery.

Then comes context. File names, ALT text, captions and surrounding content should describe the image naturally. An ALT such as "women's shoes trainers buy trainers online" forces keywords without providing clarity. By contrast, "Women's waterproof trail running shoes, model X" usefully describes the photograph when that description genuinely matches the product.

Keywords should be present, but their presence needs to serve a purpose. In image SEO, repeating terms without context is no substitute for a clear photograph, a complete product page or consistent product data. Visual search needs meaning, not an accumulation of words.

The product page is part of image SEO

The image can initiate discovery, but the product page provides the commercial context. The title should clearly identify the item, and the description should explain its use, materials, features and benefits. Where possible, attributes such as colour, material, size, gender, category and variant should be presented in a consistent, structured format.

This structure is particularly important when there are products that look very similar. Two models may share a similar photographic style, colour or silhouette, but differ in material, size, functionality or variant. The clearer the catalogue information, the easier it is to match the image to the right product.

Product structured data adds another layer. The reference information from ATLS highlights its usefulness in linking product, price, availability and other commercial signals to surfaces such as Google Images and Lens. In catalogues with variants, consistency between the different versions is essential.

The upshot is clear: image SEO doesn't end in the media library. It continues through the product page architecture, content, attributes and data quality.

Merchant Center and Google Lens: one product story

For an e-commerce business, the visual search strategy should not depend solely on the website either. The reference information recommends complementing the website with Merchant Center and product listings to expand opportunities for product discovery.

Here, consistency is critical. If the website shows a product as available while Merchant Center identifies it as out of stock, or if the price, variant and image don't match, the systems are telling different stories about the same product. These types of inconsistencies become more complex as the catalogue grows and more markets are added.

That's why image SEO at scale is also a data quality issue. Photographs, the feed, product pages and international versions should all form part of the same operational framework. It's not just about appearing in a visual search, but about providing reliable information when users discover the product.

How to measure a visual search with Search Console

The new multimodal reporting described in the reference documentation opens up a particularly interesting opportunity: to turn visual search into a measurable area. The first analysis should isolate this behaviour and look at which pages receive impressions and clicks.

It's then worth examining what types of URLs appear: products, categories or editorial content. It's also useful to review which images those pages use and what elements the pages with the greatest visibility have in common.

Spain, France, Germany and Italy may exhibit very different patterns. If France accumulates a large number of impressions from a visual search but few clicks, the problem may not be with the photograph. It could lie in the title, content, price, availability, landing page or adaptation to the market.

As a result, image SEO moves from a technical checklist to an analytical discipline. The question is no longer "Do we have ALT text?" but rather "Which products is the market discovering visually, and what are we doing with that demand?"

MIA and image SEO on an international scale

When a catalogue contains thousands of products, manually adapting titles, descriptions, metadata, categories and content for each market becomes a scalability challenge. MIA can work specifically on the semantic layer associated with the product.

MIA it does not optimise the pixel. Its role lies in the context surrounding the image: titles, descriptions, metadata, FAQs, categories and local intent. The same photograph can be used in several countries and yet require different messaging and terminology in each one.

Checklist for preparing your e-commerce business for visual search

• Images: quality, variety, details, variants and accessibility.
• Page: clear title, descriptive content and semantic context.
• Product: consistent attributes, variants, price, availability and stock.
• Structured data: Product and merchant listings where applicable.
• Merchant Center: updated feed consistent with the website.
• Market: language, currency, availability, and local intent.
• Measurement: Specific analysis of multimodal search in Search Console.

None of these layers should be analysed in isolation. The competitive advantage comes when image SEO, visual search, content, product data and international strategy work together in a coordinated way.

From optimising images to optimising discovery

Visual search does not replace traditional SEO. It expands the ways in which people can discover a product. Previously, users needed to put into words what they wanted to find. Now they can start by showing Google an image.

For brands, this evolution creates an opportunity while also raising the bar. The photograph needs to be interpretable, the product must be described correctly, commercial data needs to be consistent and the landing page needs to target the right market.

That's why image SEO is no longer simply about helping Google understand a photograph. It's about connecting that photograph with a product, an intent, a market and a shopping experience.

The strategic question for an e-commerce business is no longer just what the customer types into Google. It's also what happens when the customer doesn't type a keyword and simply uses an image.

For brands capable of integrating image SEO, visual search, content, catalogue and international strategy, that image can become the starting point for a new acquisition channel.

FAQs about image SEO and visual search

Gemma Marcé