Search Console now reports Lens, Circle to Search and image-upload traffic

Searches that start from an image now have their own line in Search Console. Google announced on September 24 a multimodal search type in the performance reports. It covers four entry points: Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, images uploaded to Google Search, and the "Search this image" item in Chrome's right-click menu.

Where the data shows up

The filter is in two places: the main performance report for Search results, and the newer report for generative AI features. Pick "multimodal" in the search type filter to see impressions, clicks and the pages that earned them. Like the other search types, the data can be exported. The rollout began globally on the day of the announcement, and a site only sees figures if it actually receives traffic from these searches.

Why it is worth a look

Until now, a click from a photo taken with a phone camera was mixed into totals with no way to separate it. Product pages, recipes, how-to guides with step photos and anything with distinctive images are the likely beneficiaries. For those sites the new filter answers a practical question: whether image work (original photos, descriptive file names, alt text, product markup) is earning visits.

Search Console keeps performance data for sixteen months, and the multimodal data starts on the rollout date. A tool that stores Search Console data on its own schedule is the way to keep a longer record. Several are listed among our SEO analytics tools.