{"id":4444,"date":"2026-03-07T02:20:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/?p=4444"},"modified":"2026-03-07T02:20:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:20:43","slug":"how-google-search-amp-google-discover-picks-image-thumbnails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/?p=4444","title":{"rendered":"How Google Search &amp;amp; Google Discover Picks Image Thumbnails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p> <div> <p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.seroundtable.com\/google-images-1772477879.jpg\" style=\"max-width:100%\" alt=\"Google Images\" title=\"How Google Search &amp;amp; Google Discover Picks Image Thumbnails\u63d2\u56fe\" \/><\/p> <p>Google updated its image SEO best practices and Google Discover documentation to clarify how Google picks a preferred image thumbnail for Google Search and Google Discover. Google wrote it &#8220;uses both schema.org markup and the og:image meta tag as sources when determining image thumbnails in Google Search and Discover.&#8221;<\/p> <p>Google added a whole new section to the image SEO best practices document named Specify a preferred image with metadata. It reads:<\/p> <blockquote><p>Google&#8217;s selection of an image preview is completely automated and takes into account a number of different sources to select which image on a given page is shown on Google (for example, a text result image or the preview image in Discover).<\/p> <p>You can influence which image gets selected by providing your preferred image through one of the following metadata sources:<\/p> <p>Specify the schema.org primaryImageOfPage property with a URL or ImageObject.<\/p> <p>Or specify an image URL or ImageObject property and attach it to the main entity (using the schema.org mainEntity or mainEntityOfPage properties):<\/p> <p>Specify the og:image meta tag.<\/p> <\/blockquote> <p>There is also this part for &#8220;When choosing your preferred image for use in schema.org markup or the og:image meta tag, follow these best practices:&#8221;<\/p> <ul> <li>Choose an image that&#8217;s relevant and representative of the page.<\/li> <p>&#13;<\/p> <li>Avoid using a generic image (for example, your site logo) or an image with text in the schema.org markup or og:image meta tag.<\/li> <p>&#13;<\/p> <li>Avoid using an image with an extreme aspect ratio (such as images that are too narrow or overly wide).<\/li> <p>&#13;<\/p> <li>Use a high resolution, if possible.<\/li> <\/ul> <p>Then in the Google Discover documentation, Google expanded on the images section and it reads:<\/p> <blockquote><p>Include compelling, high-quality images in your content that are relevant, especially large images that are more likely to generate visits from Discover. We recommend using images that meet the following specifications: At least 1200 px wide, High resolution (at least 300K), and 16&#215;9 aspect ratio.<\/p> <p>Google tries to automatically crop the image for use in Discover. If you choose to crop your images yourself, be sure your images are well-cropped and positioned for landscape usage, and avoid automatically applying an aspect ratio. For example, if you crop a vertical image into 16&#215;9 aspect ratio, be sure the important details are included in the cropped version that you specify in the og:image meta tag).<\/p> <\/blockquote> <p>Google also added this section:&#13; <\/p> <blockquote><p>Use either schema.org markup or the og:image meta tag to specify a large image that&#8217;s relevant and representative of the web page, as this can influence which image is chosen as the thumbnail in Discover. Learn more about how to specify your preferred image.<br \/>&#13;<br \/> &#8211; Avoid using generic images (for example, your site logo) in the schema.org markup or og:image meta tag.<br \/>&#13;<br \/> &#8211; Avoid using images with text in the schema.org markup or og:image meta tag.<\/p><\/blockquote> <p>Forum discussion at X.<\/p> <\/p><\/div> <p>#Google #Search #ampamp #Google #Discover #Picks #Image #Thumbnails1772821243<\/p> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google updated its image SEO best practices and Google Discover documentation to clarify how Google picks a preferred image thumbnail for Google Search and Google Discover. Google wrote it &#8220;uses both schema.org markup and the og:image meta tag as sources when determining image thumbnails in Google Search and Discover.&#8221; Google added a whole new section [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[877,4031,75,3032,3360,95,14450],"class_list":["post-4444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","tag-ampamp","tag-discover","tag-google","tag-image","tag-picks","tag-search","tag-thumbnails"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/longzhuplatform.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}