Google to Roll Out Image Licensing Information in Image Search Results

Google is working on a new approach to focus on copyright and ownership in image search results. It will allow the people to get licensing and ownership details of those images they are searching on the internet. The websites will have to show the licensing details about the images, once the new feature is rolled out.

For the time being, the tech giant has been working to address image theft by introducing several corrective measures. For example, Google removed the View Image” icon in 2018, in the same way, it made some changes in the image result page to highlight the copyright and ownership information more noticeable.

And now it is coming up with a new structured data element that will push the data protection more effectively.

In its blog (hyperlink: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/image-license-metadata), Google says:

“When you specify license information for the images on your website, the image can display with a Licensable badge on image thumbnails in Google Images.”

How to Add Metadata To Your Image:

Google has highlighted two easy ways of adding metadata to your image. You can go by any of the techniques mentioned below:

Structured Data:

Google suggests using structured data every time you add an image to your content, even if you are using the same images. It is termed to be a relationship between the text and an image on the webpage. It is used with markup.

IPTC Photo Metadata:

It is a new feature that allows you not to use the metadata every time. Because IPTC photo metadata is embedded in the images. What you need to do is to embed the IPTC photo metadata once per image you are using.

How to Get the Web Pages and Images Ready for Indexation:

You need to implement the following tips to ensure Google can easily find and index your images.

• Ensure the visitors are able to visit your pages without logging in
• EnsureGooglebot can find your webpages. Check if the pages are not disallowed by robots.txt files
• Use Webmaster recommendations to ensure your pages are noticeable for Google
• Stick with theGoogle Images guidelines
• Submit sitemaps to let Google know about your website

Will Beta Testing Affect SEO Ranking?

Once the information about this beta testing broke out on the internet, SEO professionals started asking questions about whether the new changes would have any impact on the SEO ranking. Google’s John Mueller instantly took to Twitter to explain that the changes would have no impact on search rankings in any manner.

On the other hand, Google’s Danny Sullivan replied to a question of whether the new changes will promote the deceitful form of link building—he says, “It’s about letting site owners highlight licensing information.”

Why Do You Need to Care?

If you publish content with licensable images along with all the licensing details, it will help you reduce the image theft. Along with this, you will see a significant surge in the revenue for your images.