Search Console is rolling out a multimodal filter for searches that use an image, including Lens and Circle to Search. Query data isn't available for it.

Google is adding a multimodal filter to Search Console’s Performance report, covering searches where someone used an image as part of the search.

The announcement on the Search Central blog says the data includes searches with Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, image uploads to Google Search, and the Chrome right-click “Search this image” feature. Google says it’s rolling out globally starting today.

The new feature can be found under the Web search type. Google’s updated Performance report help page now divides Web into text-based traffic, which comes from queries typed into the standard search bar, and multimodal, which “includes web search results where an image was used as part of the search.”

Harsh Kharbanda, Product Manager Lead for Google Lens, and Moshe Samet, Product Manager Lead for Search Console, shared their insights:

“This update is designed to give you insights into how your content is surfaced when users search using images (such as with a smartphone camera).”

The metrics show up only for sites that get traffic from these searches, according to the post. Google also says multimodal reporting is rolling out to the generative AI performance report, which I covered when it reached all sites on Aug. 31. That report counts impressions, not clicks.

Multimodal traffic comes without query data. Google’s dimensions help page explains why:

“Because multimodal searches mostly use images rather than text, specific text query data isn’t available for this traffic.”

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