Story Based Question
You’ve been working on optimizing your website for SEO, and while your content is great and your images are optimized, you’re still unsure how they’re performing in search results. You’re hearing a lot about Google Search Console and its ability to help track your website’s performance, but you’re not sure how to specifically monitor image performance. You wonder: How do you use Google Search Console to monitor image performance, and what metrics should you focus on?
Exact Answer
You can use Google Search Console to monitor image performance by reviewing the Search Analytics report, focusing on metrics like clicks, impressions, and average position for image searches. Additionally, ensure that images are indexed properly by checking the Coverage Report.
Explanation
Google Search Console provides a range of tools and reports that can help you track the performance of your website’s images. Here’s how to use it effectively for image performance:
- Search Analytics Report
The Search Analytics section shows key metrics about your website’s performance in Google Search, including how your images are performing. In this report, you can focus on:- Clicks: How many times users clicked on an image result.
- Impressions: How often your images appeared in search results.
- Average Position: Where your images rank on average in search results.
- Coverage Report
The Coverage Report tells you about the indexation status of your images and whether they are being crawled correctly by Google. It highlights any issues preventing images from being indexed, such as missingalttext, incorrect file types, or other technical issues. - Mobile Usability Report
Google gives you insights into how images are performing on mobile devices through the Mobile Usability report. Since mobile-first indexing is a priority for Google, it’s crucial to ensure your images are optimized for mobile users, both in terms of load speed and responsiveness. - Core Web Vitals
Google Search Console also tracks Core Web Vitals, which measure page load speed and user interaction. Since image load time can significantly impact these metrics, you can identify if large images are slowing down your page or causing poor performance on mobile devices. - Fixing Issues
If you notice that your images aren’t appearing in search results or have a low CTR, you can take action by:- Ensuring that your images are properly optimized with descriptive alt text, file names, and structured data.
- Checking for crawl errors related to images.
- Improving the mobile-friendliness of images, ensuring they load quickly and fit within responsive layouts.
Example
Imagine you run an online fashion store and want to track how well your product images are performing in Google Search. Here’s how you’d use Google Search Console to monitor your image performance:
- Using Search Analytics: You go to the Search Analytics section and filter by “Image.” You see that your product images for summer dresses are showing up in search results with 500,000 impressions, but only 1,000 clicks. This gives you an idea that although people are seeing your images, they’re not clicking through as often.
- Adjusting for Better Performance: Upon further investigation, you find that the average position for these images is quite low (around 15th). This indicates that your images aren’t ranking as high as they could. You adjust by improving your alt text for more detailed descriptions, ensuring that it’s relevant to the search queries (like “floral summer dress” instead of just “summer dress”).
- Checking Coverage Report: You also check the Coverage Report to make sure that all your images are indexed. You discover that some of your product images aren’t being indexed due to a missing XML sitemap entry. Once you add those images to your sitemap, the coverage report updates, and your images start to appear in search results.
- Fixing Mobile Issues: The Mobile Usability Report shows that your images are not optimized for smaller screens, making them slow to load on mobile devices. You switch to using responsive image tags and compress images for faster load times.
By making these changes, you see a boost in clicks and an increase in your image rankings on Google Image Search.
Using Google Search Console to monitor image performance is an essential step in optimizing your site’s visuals for better SEO results. By focusing on metrics like clicks, impressions, and the status of your image indexation, you can identify areas for improvement and ensure your images are performing well. With regular monitoring, you’ll be able to make informed decisions that drive better results for your site’s image SEO.