Image Carousel

An image carousel is a SERP feature: a horizontal row of images in the search results that the user can scroll through. Google shows it on queries with visual intent, "green velvet sofa" or "small bathroom ideas", where a picture answers better than a line of text. The carousel usually sits at the top or in the middle of the page and pushes the classic blue links further down.

Where the images come from

The images come from Google's image index, and a click typically leads on to Google Images or straight to the page behind the picture. Which images Google picks depends on how easy they are to decode: descriptive alt tags and file names, relevant text context on the page, decent resolution and fast loading. For webshops, structured data plays in on top, because it lets Google connect the image to product, price and stock status.

A surface still growing

Search gets more visual year by year. Google Lens turned the camera into a search field, and the models behind modern search read images close to the way they read text. In industries where the picture does the selling, property, fashion, food and design, the image carousel is a traffic source competitors are already contesting.

Competition for the visual placements is usually milder than for the text results, because image optimization is one of the corners of SEO fewest teams work through systematically. The guide to visual search covers images and the visual surfaces in practice.