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·SEO Analytics Team·23 min read

Search Type Analysis: Web, Image, Video Performance in Google Search Console

Search Type Analysis: Web, Image, Video Performance in Google Search Console

Search Type Analysis: Web, Image, Video Performance in Google Search Console

Meta Title: Search Type Analysis in GSC: Web, Image, Video Performance (2026)

Meta Description: Learn how to analyze web, image, and video search performance in Google Search Console. Discover when to focus on each search type and optimize your multi-search strategy.

Target Keywords: search type analysis GSC, web image video search, Google Search Console search types, image search optimization, video search performance

Last Updated: January 21, 2026

Introduction

Most SEO professionals check Google Search Console and see a single number: total clicks. But Google Search isn't one thing—it's multiple distinct search experiences. Every day, billions of searches happen across web search, image search, video search, and other specialized search types.

This guide, part of our complete GSC guide, focuses on search type analysis. Your content can perform dramatically differently across search types. You might have a page that gets 100 clicks from web search but 5,000 clicks from image search. Or a guide that dominates web results but is invisible in video search—even though video results would be perfect. Learn to use filters and comparisons for search type segmentation.

Understanding search type performance reveals entirely new traffic opportunities most competitors ignore.

You'll learn how to segment and analyze performance by search type, what different patterns mean for your strategy, when to invest in image or video search optimization, and how to build a multi-search-type optimization strategy.

Understanding Search Types in Google Search Console

What Are Search Types?

Google Search Console segments performance data into distinct search types:

Web Search - Traditional text-based search results. Standard blue links, featured snippets, and knowledge panels.

Image Search - Google Images results. Users go to images.google.com or click the "Images" tab. Massive traffic source many sites overlook.

Video Search - Video results in web search and the dedicated Videos tab. Includes YouTube videos, embedded videos, and other video content.

News Search - Google News results. Only relevant if your site is approved for Google News (primarily news publishers).

Discover - Google's content recommendation feed on mobile. Technically not "search" since users don't enter queries, but GSC includes it as a traffic source.

[Visual Placeholder: Screenshot showing the "Search type" dropdown in GSC Performance Report with Web, Image, Video, News, and Discover options]

Why Search Type Analysis Matters

Most sites get traffic from one search type (usually web search), creating three problems:

Problem #1: Missed Opportunities You might have content that could dominate image or video search, but you'll never know if you only look at total clicks.

Problem #2: Misattributed Performance A traffic spike might be from image search going viral, not improved web rankings. Without search type segmentation, you won't know what actually worked.

Problem #3: Wrong Optimization Focus You might optimize for web search when 80% of your traffic comes from images. You'd get better ROI focusing on image optimization.

Real example: An e-commerce site saw 40% traffic increase. The team celebrated their "improved SEO strategy." When they segmented by search type, growth was 100% from image search—web search traffic declined 10%. They were optimizing the wrong thing.

How to Access Search Type Data in GSC

  1. Open Google Search Console → Performance report
  2. At the top, look for "+ New" button or "Search type" filter option
  3. Click search type filter and select types to analyze:
    • Select one type to see isolated performance
    • Select multiple types to compare side-by-side
    • Use "Compare" tab to see performance differences
  4. Apply date ranges and other filters. Search type combines with any GSC filters (pages, queries, countries, devices).

[Visual Placeholder: Annotated screenshot showing step-by-step how to filter by search type in GSC]

Pro Tip: Start by viewing web, image, and video search separately for your entire site over the last 16 months.

Web Search: Your Primary Traffic Source

For most websites, web search drives 70-95% of total organic traffic. This is the "traditional" SEO that most strategies focus on.

When Web Search Should Be Your Priority

Scenario #1: Information and Service Sites If your site primarily provides information, services, or SaaS products, web search should be your main focus. Users searching for:

  • "How to" queries
  • Service comparisons
  • Software reviews
  • B2B solutions
  • Professional services

These searchers want text-based information, not images or videos.

Scenario #2: Low Visual Content If your content doesn't naturally lend itself to strong visuals (legal information, data analysis, technical documentation), web search will dominate your traffic by necessity.

Scenario #3: Commercial and Transactional Intent High-intent commercial queries ("best CRM software," "hire SEO consultant") happen primarily in web search. Users want to read comparisons, reviews, and detailed information before buying.

Reading Web Search Performance

Healthy Web Search Patterns:

  1. Steady growth or stability - Web search traffic should be relatively stable with gradual growth as your content library expands.

  2. CTR between 2-5% on average - Depending on your average position and query types. Informational content typically has higher CTR than commercial content.

  3. Diverse query types - Mix of branded, navigational, informational, and commercial queries indicates healthy web search presence.

  4. Position improvements lead to traffic gains - If you improve from position 8 to position 4, you should see proportional traffic increases.

Warning Signs in Web Search:

  1. Declining CTR at stable positions - Suggests SERP features are eating your clicks (featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, zero-click searches).

  2. High impressions, low clicks - You're ranking but not compelling users to click. Title/meta description optimization needed.

  3. Traffic drop during algorithm updates - Core updates primarily affect web search. Compare your traffic changes to update dates.

[Visual Placeholder: Chart showing healthy web search pattern - gradual growth with seasonal fluctuations]

Web Search Optimization Focus Areas

Priority #1: Query-Content Alignment Match your content to the specific intent behind queries. Use GSC to identify:

  • Queries where you rank positions 5-15 (improvement opportunities)
  • High-impression, low-CTR queries (title/description issues)
  • Queries with declining position (content decay signals)

Priority #2: Technical SEO Foundation Web search requires solid technical SEO:

  • Fast page load times
  • Mobile optimization
  • Clear site structure
  • Clean crawlability
  • Proper internal linking

Priority #3: E-E-A-T Signals For YMYL and competitive topics, web search rankings heavily depend on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust signals.

Image Search: The Underestimated Traffic Source

Image search is the most under-optimized traffic opportunity for most websites. Sites often get 10-30% of their total clicks from image search without any intentional image SEO—imagine what's possible with actual optimization.

When to Prioritize Image Search

High-Potential Scenarios:

Scenario #1: Visual Products or Services

  • E-commerce (any physical products)
  • Interior design, architecture, real estate
  • Fashion and apparel
  • Food and recipes
  • Art, photography, design portfolios
  • Travel and destinations
  • Home improvement and DIY

If your business is inherently visual, image search should be 20-40% of your organic traffic strategy.

Scenario #2: Infographics and Data Visualization Educational content with strong infographics, charts, and diagrams can dominate image search for their topics. Example: "SEO statistics 2026" has thousands of infographic results.

Scenario #3: Tutorial and How-To Content Step-by-step guides with process screenshots, diagrams, or illustrations perform exceptionally well in image search. Users often search Google Images for visual guides instead of reading text articles.

Scenario #4: Current GSC Data Shows Opportunity Check your Performance report filtered to "Image" search type. If you're already getting meaningful image traffic (500+ clicks/month) with minimal optimization, there's huge upside potential.

Understanding Image Search Behavior

Image search users behave differently than web search users:

Different Intent: Many image searchers want to:

  • Browse visual inspiration (not click through)
  • Save/download images (not visit sites)
  • Find specific visual references
  • Research products visually before deciding

Different Metrics: Image search typically has:

  • Lower CTR than web search (2-3x lower is normal)
  • Higher impression volume (images appear in grids, not 10-per-page)
  • Different position dynamics (users scroll through many images)

This means high impressions, low clicks is normal and good in image search. You want impressions for brand visibility even if CTR is low.

[Visual Placeholder: Side-by-side comparison chart showing web search vs image search CTR patterns]

Analyzing Image Search Performance in GSC

Step 1: Identify Your Image Search Volume

Filter Performance report to "Image" search type. Look at the last 12 months to account for seasonality.

Key questions:

  • What percentage of total clicks come from image search?
  • Is image traffic growing, stable, or declining?
  • Which pages drive image traffic?
  • Which queries bring image searchers?

Step 2: Find Image Opportunities

Filter to image search, then sort queries by impressions. Look for:

  • High impressions (10,000+), any click volume = You're visible
  • Growing impression trends = Rising query volume
  • Commercial intent keywords = High-value traffic

Step 3: Analyze Image-Driven Pages

Switch to the "Pages" tab while filtered to image search. Identify:

  • Pages that get disproportionate image traffic
  • Gallery pages or image-heavy content performing well
  • Product pages with strong image performance

Real Example: A kitchenware e-commerce site discovered one product page got 300 clicks from web search but 4,500 clicks from image search. They had accidentally captured the #2 image position for "modern kitchen organization." They:

  1. Optimized 50 similar product images
  2. Increased image search traffic 380% in 3 months
  3. Revenue from image search traffic was 18% of organic total

Image Search Optimization Checklist

On-Page Image SEO:

  1. Descriptive file names - Use keywords in file names before uploading

    • Good: stainless-steel-kitchen-organizer-drawer.jpg
    • Bad: IMG_3847.jpg

  2. Optimized alt text - Descriptive, keyword-relevant, but natural

    • Good: Stainless steel drawer organizer with adjustable compartments in modern kitchen
    • Bad: Image or kitchen organizer kitchen organization drawer organizer (keyword stuffing)

  3. Image context - Surround images with relevant text content. Google reads surrounding text to understand image context.

  4. Responsive images - Use srcset and responsive images so they look good on all devices.

  5. Image dimensions - Large enough for quality (minimum 1200px wide for key images) but optimized for speed.

Technical Image SEO:

  1. Image sitemaps - Include images in your XML sitemap or create a dedicated image sitemap.

  2. Structured data - Use ImageObject schema, Product schema with images, or Recipe schema as appropriate.

  3. Page speed - Lazy load images below the fold, compress images, use modern formats (WebP).

  4. Mobile optimization - Images must render well on mobile since most image search happens on mobile devices.

Content Strategy for Image Search:

  1. Create unique images - Original images outperform stock photos in image search.

  2. Multiple images per page - Gallery pages and multiple product angles increase image search footprint.

  3. Image variety - Include diagrams, infographics, photos, screenshots, and illustrations where relevant.

[Visual Placeholder: Before/after example showing image optimization impact on impressions and clicks]

Video Search: The Growing Opportunity

Video search is the fastest-growing search type, driven by users' increasing preference for video content and YouTube's integration with Google Search.

When Video Search Matters for Your Site

High-Opportunity Scenarios:

Scenario #1: You Create Video Content If you publish videos (YouTube, Vimeo, self-hosted), video search optimization is essential. Your videos can appear in:

  • YouTube search results
  • Google web search (video carousels, featured videos)
  • Google Videos tab
  • Google Discover

Scenario #2: Educational and Tutorial Content How-to guides, tutorials, courses, and educational content perform exceptionally well in video format. Users increasingly search for video tutorials instead of text guides.

Scenario #3: Product Demonstrations Product reviews, unboxings, comparisons, and demonstrations drive video search traffic. E-commerce sites with video content can capture this traffic.

Scenario #4: Entertainment and News Entertainment content, news, and trending topics have strong video search demand.

When Video Search Doesn't Matter:

  • You don't create any video content (and don't plan to)
  • Your topic isn't suited to video format (legal documents, data tables, technical specifications)
  • Your audience strongly prefers text (some B2B and technical audiences)

If video doesn't fit your content strategy, that's fine—don't force it. Focus on web and image search instead.

Understanding Video Search in GSC

What GSC Tracks:

Google Search Console tracks video performance in two ways:

  1. Video search type filter - Shows queries and performance when your videos appear in video search results.

  2. Video search appearance filter - Shows when video rich results appear for your content in web search (the video carousel).

Both are valuable, but they measure different things.

Video Search Metrics Interpretation:

  • Impressions - Your video appeared in search results (video tab or video carousel).
  • Clicks - User clicked to watch your video or visit your page.
  • CTR - Video search CTR is typically lower than web search (1-3% is normal).
  • Position - Average ranking position when your video appeared.

Important limitation: GSC doesn't track video watch time, video engagement, or whether users actually watched your video after clicking. For that, you need YouTube Analytics or your video hosting platform's analytics.

[Visual Placeholder: Screenshot showing how to filter for video search appearance in GSC]

Analyzing Video Search Performance

Step 1: Check If You Have Video Data

Filter Performance report to "Video" search type. If you see data:

  • Note total clicks and impressions
  • Compare to your total organic traffic
  • Identify trend direction (growing or stable)

If you see zero data, either:

  • You don't have video content indexed by Google
  • Your videos aren't optimized for search
  • Your video content isn't ranking yet

Step 2: Identify Video-Performing Queries

With video search type selected, view the Queries tab:

  • What queries bring video traffic?
  • Do they align with your video content strategy?
  • Are there high-impression queries where you could create videos?

Step 3: Evaluate Video Content Gaps

Compare your video search queries to your web search queries:

  • Queries with high web traffic but no video results = Opportunity to create video content
  • Queries with "video" or "how to" in them = Strong video intent, prioritize video creation

Real Example: A software company analyzed their GSC data and found "how to [use their product]" queries had 50,000 monthly impressions but no video search presence. Their competitors dominated video results. They created 15 tutorial videos, optimized them for search, and within 6 months:

  • 12,000 monthly clicks from video search
  • 25% of those users converted to paid plans
  • Video content became their second-highest converting channel after direct signups

Video Search Optimization Strategy

Video Content Optimization:

  1. Compelling thumbnails - High-quality, clear thumbnails with readable text increase CTR significantly.

  2. Keyword-optimized titles - Front-load target keywords in video titles (YouTube and video file names).

  3. Detailed descriptions - Write 200+ word descriptions with keywords, timestamps, and links.

  4. Transcripts and captions - Provide accurate captions. Google can read video captions to understand content.

  5. Video length optimization - Match video length to query intent:

    • Quick answers: 2-5 minutes
    • Tutorials: 8-15 minutes
    • Deep dives: 20+ minutes

Technical Video SEO:

  1. VideoObject schema - Implement structured data for videos on your site.

  2. Video sitemaps - Submit video sitemaps to GSC to ensure indexing.

  3. Embed videos on relevant pages - Host videos on YouTube but embed them on your site's relevant pages.

  4. Fast video loading - Use lazy loading and appropriate hosting to ensure quick load times.

Multi-Platform Video Strategy:

  1. YouTube optimization - If using YouTube, optimize for YouTube SEO (it's the second-largest search engine).

  2. Cross-posting - Consider posting videos on multiple platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, LinkedIn, Twitter) for maximum reach.

  3. Self-hosting consideration - For key video content, consider self-hosting to keep users on your site (but you'll lose YouTube's search power).

[Visual Placeholder: Flowchart showing video optimization decision tree - YouTube vs self-hosted, when to create video content]

Building Your Multi-Search-Type Strategy

The most sophisticated SEO strategies don't optimize for just one search type—they create integrated approaches that maximize visibility across all relevant search types.

Step 1: Conduct a Search Type Audit

Analyze Current Performance:

Create a spreadsheet with these columns:

  • Search Type (Web, Image, Video)
  • Total Clicks (last 12 months)
  • Percentage of Total Traffic
  • Average CTR
  • Trend (growing/stable/declining)
  • Opportunity Score (low/medium/high)

Calculate Percentage Distribution:

Example results:

  • Web search: 24,500 clicks (78%)
  • Image search: 6,200 clicks (20%)
  • Video search: 630 clicks (2%)

This immediately shows where your traffic comes from and where opportunities might exist.

Identify Gaps:

Compare your distribution to your content types:

  • Do you have lots of images but low image traffic? (Optimization opportunity)
  • Do you have video content but no video search presence? (Technical SEO issue)
  • Is one search type growing much faster than others? (Invest more there)

Step 2: Set Search Type Goals

Based on your audit and business model, set realistic goals:

Example Goal Framework:

E-commerce site with visual products:

  • Web search: 60% of traffic (currently 78%) - Maintain
  • Image search: 35% of traffic (currently 20%) - Grow
  • Video search: 5% of traffic (currently 2%) - Grow

SaaS with tutorial content:

  • Web search: 70% of traffic (currently 85%) - Maintain
  • Image search: 15% of traffic (currently 10%) - Grow
  • Video search: 15% of traffic (currently 5%) - Grow aggressively

Content publisher:

  • Web search: 80% of traffic (currently 92%) - Maintain
  • Image search: 10% of traffic (currently 6%) - Grow
  • Video search: 10% of traffic (currently 2%) - Experimental

Step 3: Allocate Resources by Search Type

Content Creation Budget:

Divide your content creation resources based on opportunity:

Example allocation for an e-commerce site:

  • 50% - Web search content (product descriptions, guides, comparisons)
  • 30% - Image optimization (product photos, lifestyle images, infographics)
  • 20% - Video creation (product demos, how-to guides)

Example allocation for a B2B SaaS:

  • 60% - Web search content (blog posts, guides, documentation)
  • 15% - Image creation (diagrams, screenshots, infographics)
  • 25% - Video tutorials (screen recordings, explainer videos)

Step 4: Create Integrated Content

The most effective approach: create content that performs across multiple search types simultaneously.

Integrated Content Examples:

Tutorial Blog Post:

  • Web search: Detailed step-by-step written guide
  • Image search: Annotated screenshots for each step
  • Video search: Embedded video walkthrough

Product Page:

  • Web search: Detailed product description and specs
  • Image search: Multiple product angles, lifestyle photos, size charts
  • Video search: Product demo video, 360-degree view

Industry Guide:

  • Web search: Comprehensive written analysis
  • Image search: Original infographics and data visualizations
  • Video search: Summary video or expert interview

This approach maximizes ROI—one piece of content work, three search type opportunities.

Step 5: Monitor and Optimize

Monthly Search Type Review:

Set up a monthly review process:

  1. Pull search type data from GSC for the last 30 days
  2. Compare to previous month and same month last year
  3. Identify changes - What grew? What declined? Why?
  4. Check new content performance - How are new pages performing across search types?
  5. Update priorities based on what's working

Quarterly Deep Dive:

Every quarter:

  1. Audit top 20 pages by total traffic - Break down by search type
  2. Identify underperformers - Pages with traffic from only one search type when they should have more
  3. Competitive analysis - How do competitors perform across search types for your key topics?
  4. Strategy adjustment - Shift resources toward highest-ROI search types

[Visual Placeholder: Dashboard template showing search type performance tracking over time]

Common Search Type Analysis Mistakes

Mistake #1: Only Looking at Total Traffic

The Problem: You optimize based on total clicks without understanding which search type drives performance.

The Solution: Always segment by search type before making optimization decisions. What works for web search might hurt image search and vice versa.

Mistake #2: Comparing Search Types Directly

The Problem: "My image search CTR is 1.2% but web search CTR is 3.8%, so image search is underperforming."

The Solution: Each search type has different normal ranges. Image search naturally has lower CTR because of how results display. Compare each search type to its own benchmarks, not to other search types.

Mistake #3: Ignoring Search Types Without Much Current Traffic

The Problem: "We only get 200 clicks from video search, so it's not worth optimizing."

The Solution: Low current traffic might indicate massive untapped opportunity. If competitors get thousands of video clicks for your topics, that's opportunity, not weakness.

Mistake #4: Over-Optimizing for Image/Video at Web Search's Expense

The Problem: You focus so much on image optimization that you hurt web search rankings.

The Solution: Integrated optimization. Images should enhance pages, not slow them down. Videos should supplement content, not replace it.

Mistake #5: Not Accounting for Intent Differences

The Problem: You expect image search traffic to convert like web search traffic, then consider it low-quality when it doesn't.

The Solution: Different search types have different user intents. Image search is often top-of-funnel awareness. Video search is often mid-funnel education. Web search spans the entire funnel. Set appropriate expectations for each.

Real-World Search Type Analysis Examples

Example 1: Recipe Site Discovers Image Search Dominance

Situation: Food blog with 200+ recipes getting 45,000 monthly organic clicks.

Analysis: Owner segments by search type:

  • Web search: 15,000 clicks (33%)
  • Image search: 29,000 clicks (64%)
  • Video search: 1,000 clicks (3%)

Insight: Image search drives 2x more traffic than web search, but they'd been focused 90% on SEO copywriting (web search optimization).

Action Taken:

  1. Improved recipe photos (hired food photographer)
  2. Added process photos for each recipe step
  3. Optimized image file names and alt text
  4. Created Pinterest-optimized vertical images

Result: 3 months later:

  • Image search: 48,000 clicks (+66%)
  • Web search: 16,500 clicks (+10%)
  • Total traffic: 65,500 clicks (+46%)

Lesson: Optimize where your traffic actually comes from, not where you assume it comes from.

Example 2: SaaS Company Unlocks Video Search

Situation: B2B SaaS getting 12,000 monthly clicks, 98% from web search, 2% from other sources.

Analysis: Checked competitor search type performance and found top competitors getting 30-40% of traffic from video search.

Insight: Market clearly values video content for their product category, but they had zero video strategy.

Action Taken:

  1. Created 20 tutorial videos (screen recordings with voiceover)
  2. Uploaded to YouTube with optimized titles/descriptions
  3. Embedded videos on relevant help docs and blog posts
  4. Implemented VideoObject schema

Result: 6 months later:

  • Video search: 2,400 clicks (started from near-zero)
  • Web search: 14,000 clicks (grew organically)
  • Video content increased average time on site by 45%
  • Video visitors converted to trials at 2.3x the rate of text-only visitors

Lesson: Absence of traffic from a search type might indicate opportunity, not irrelevance.

Example 3: E-commerce Store Rebalances Strategy

Situation: Online furniture store, 80,000 monthly clicks, 85% from web search.

Analysis: Segmented top 50 product pages by search type:

  • Best-selling products: 60% web, 35% image, 5% video
  • Other products: 90% web, 8% image, 2% video

Insight: Their best-selling products had much better image search presence, likely contributing to why they sold better.

Action Taken:

  1. Conducted image audit of entire catalog
  2. Re-photographed 200 products with lifestyle settings
  3. Added 6-8 images per product (previously had 2-3)
  4. Created product demo videos for top 30 products

Result: 4 months later:

  • Image search traffic up 180% overall
  • Previously low-performing products with new photos saw 45% sales increase
  • Video search clicks grew from 1,600 to 6,400/month

Lesson: Search type performance patterns often correlate with business outcomes. Optimize underperformers to the level of your best performers.

Key Takeaways

1. Search type segmentation reveals hidden opportunities. Most sites have massive untapped potential in image or video search that total traffic numbers hide.

2. Each search type has different user behaviors. Don't judge image search by web search standards—they're different channels.

3. Your content type guides your search type focus. Visual products need image search. Tutorial content needs video. Services need web search. Match optimization to your content's natural strengths.

4. Multi-search-type content performs best. Create integrated content that captures traffic from web, image, and video search simultaneously.

5. Small percentages can be big opportunities. Even if video search is "only" 5% of traffic, that might be 5,000 clicks you could grow to 15,000 with optimization.

6. Monitor search types separately over time. Traffic changes affect search types differently. Algorithm updates primarily impact web search. SERP feature changes affect all search types differently.

7. Let data guide your strategy, not assumptions. Many sites assume web search dominates when image search actually drives more traffic. Check your actual data.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Search type analysis transforms how you think about SEO. Instead of one monolithic "organic search" channel, you see three distinct opportunities with different optimization approaches and growth potential.

Your Next Steps:

  1. Run your search type audit - Filter GSC by web, image, and video search. Calculate what percentage each represents. Takes 10 minutes.

  2. Identify your highest-opportunity search type - Where's the biggest gap between current performance and potential? Focus there first.

  3. Optimize one piece of content for multiple search types - Take your best-performing page and enhance it for search types it's currently missing (add better images, create a video, optimize existing visuals).

  4. Set up monthly search type tracking - Add search type segmentation to your regular SEO reporting. Watch for changes and opportunities.

  5. Align content creation with search type opportunities - If image search is underperforming, prioritize visual content creation. If video search shows potential, invest in video production.

Sites that will dominate organic search in 2026 and beyond aren't just optimizing for Google—they're optimizing for how people actually search across multiple interfaces and modalities. Search type analysis is how you get there.

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About This Guide

This guide is part of our Google Search Console Mastery series, helping SEO professionals extract maximum value from their GSC data. For more GSC analysis techniques, troubleshooting guides, and optimization strategies, explore our complete GSC resource library.

Have questions about search type analysis? The most common questions involve interpretation of multi-search-type data and prioritization decisions. Check our GSC Performance Report guide for foundational concepts, or dive into advanced filtering techniques for sophisticated segmentation strategies.