DEV Community

Cover image for Google Search Thumbnails: How to Get Image Previews
Tom Morgan
Tom Morgan

Posted on

Google Search Thumbnails: How to Get Image Previews

How Google picks the image In March 2026, Google added a section called “Specify a preferred image with metadata” to its image SEO documentation.

No text in the image. Thumbnails in text results weren’t always common. Case 5: How image badges started In August 2017, Google began labeling images in Image Search with badges (Recipe, Product, Video).

Key takeaways

  • Search Engine Land reported video and recipe data showing in mobile image results around the same time.
  • Do I need structured data for a thumbnail, or is og: image enough?
  • For rich results and badges, structured data with an image property is required.

Google ended FAQ rich results on May 7, 2026.

Read the full article: https://www.contentevaluator.online/2026/11/02/google-search-thumbnails/

Top comments (0)