Google Search Console added a multimodal filter to its Performance report on 24 September 2026. It splits the old "Web" search type into two: text-based and image-based. You can now see which pages get clicks when someone finds them through Google Lens, Circle to Search, or a straight image upload, instead of typing a query. The catch: it shows you pages, not images, and there's no query data behind any of it. If you sell anything visual, it's worth five minutes. If you don't, this changes nothing today.
What Does the Google Search Console Multimodal Filter Show?#
Search Console used to lump every result into one Web bucket, text and image searches together. As of 24 September 2026, that bucket splits. Selecting "Multimodal" under Search type in the Performance report now isolates clicks that came from:
- Google Lens
- Circle to Search on Android
- A direct image upload to Search
- Chrome's right-click "Search this image"
Google's own announcement frames it as visibility into "the modern search landscape," and says the goal is helping site owners "optimize your visual content." Fair enough, except the Queries tab goes dark the moment you select Multimodal. Google's stated reason, reported by Search Engine Journal: "Because multimodal searches mostly use images rather than text, specific text query data isn't available for this traffic." You get the page. You don't get the search term, and you don't get which image on that page did the work if there's more than one.
Does This Actually Change Anything For You?#
Short answer: only if a photo is doing real selling for you. If you run a SaaS product, a law firm site, or anything where the copy is the product, close this tab. There's nothing here for you yet, and I doubt there will be for a while.
If you sell anything someone would photograph first, apparel, skincare, furniture, food, or you run a service business that leans on before-and-after shots (med spas and dental clinics both live on this), this is a small but real new data source. At WebEpex we build product and service pages for clients across the GCC, Europe, USA, Canada, and India where the image carries more weight than the paragraph next to it, and this week we started pulling this filter into every one of those Search Console reviews before we touch anything else on the SEO side.
The Honest Trade-Off#
The good part first: this is the first time Google has shown page-level attribution for Lens and visual search at all. Before 24 September, that traffic was invisible, folded into a Web total you couldn't separate out. Now you can at least see which pages are earning impressions and clicks from someone's camera roll instead of their keyboard.
The part that limits how useful it actually is: no query data means no way to know what people are searching for when they land through an image, so you can't optimize toward a term the way you would with normal Search Console data. And the Search Analytics API doesn't list a separate multimodal parameter yet, per Search Engine Journal's reporting, so anything beyond the built-in charts means a manual export. There's no clean way to pipe this into an existing dashboard right now. I'd treat it as a directional signal, not a metric to build a report around just yet.
How We're Handling It#
At WebEpex we folded this straight into the technical SEO audit we run for new clients this month, right alongside the AI Overviews reporting we started tracking last month. The check is simple: pull the multimodal filter, find any product or service page with strong photography but close to zero multimodal impressions, and flag it. Nine times out of ten that's not a ranking problem. It's the image itself, a cluttered background, poor lighting, no structured product data sitting behind it.
What we're not doing is building a scraper or a custom pipeline against this report. The API doesn't support it cleanly yet, and Google has a habit of reshaping a brand-new report within a quarter or two of shipping it, the same way the EU search layout changed under regulatory pressure with almost no warning. We'd rather check the UI by hand for now than build automation against a shape that might not survive winter. That's a call, not a fact, and I could be wrong about how long it stays this way.
What I'd Tell a Client Asking About This#
Open Search Console, filter Performance by Search type, select Multimodal, and just look. If most of the impressions land on category pages instead of your actual product pages, that usually points at thin imagery or missing alt text on the products themselves, not a penalty. If you're running Meta ads off the same product photography, this is a free second read on whether those images are working anywhere Google can see them too. If you're a pure service business with no catalog and no product shots, skip this one entirely. Nothing here touches you.
If you want a second pair of eyes on what your own Search Console is already showing you, send me the account and I'll walk through it, free, two minutes, no pitch attached. cal.com/webepex/growth-review
