Image metadata in Google Images

When you specify image metadata, Google Images can show more details about the image, such as who the creator is, how people can use an image, and credit information. For example, providing licensing information can make the image eligible for the Licensable badge, which provides a link to the license and more detail on how someone can use the image.

Image metadata in Google Images

Feature availability

This feature is available on mobile and desktop, and in all regions and languages that Google Search is available.

Prepare your web pages and images

To make sure Google can discover and index your images:

  • Make sure people can access and view your pages that contain images without needing an account or logging in.
  • Make sure Googlebot can access your pages that contain images (meaning, your pages aren't disallowed by a robots.txt file or robots meta tag). You can see all pages blocked on your site in the Page Indexing report, or test a specific page using the URL Inspection tool.
  • Follow the Search Essentials to make sure Google can discover your content.
  • Follow the image SEO best practices.
  • To keep Google informed of changes, we recommend that you submit a sitemap. You can automate this with the Search Console Sitemap API.

Add structured data or IPTC photo metadata

To tell Google about your image metadata, add structured data or IPTC photo metadata to each image on your site. If you have the same image on multiple pages, add structured data or IPTC photo metadata to each image on each page that it appears.

There are two ways that you can add photo metadata to your image. You only need to provide Google with one form of information to be eligible for enhancements like the Licensable badge, and any of the following methods is sufficient:

  • Structured data: Structured data is an association between the image and the page where it appears with the mark up. You need to add structured data for every instance an image is used, even if it's the same image.
  • IPTC photo metadata: IPTC photo metadata is embedded into the image itself, and the image and metadata can move from page to page while still staying intact. You only need to embed IPTC photo metadata once per image.

The following diagram shows how license information may show up in Google Images:

Callouts showing what parts of the license metadata may be shown in Google Images
  1. A URL to a page that describes the license governing an image's use. Specify this information with the Schema.org license property or the IPTC Web Statement of Rights field.
  2. A URL to a page that describes where the user can find information on how to license that image. Specify this information with the Schema.org acquireLicensePage property or the IPTC Licensor URL (of a Licensor) field.

Structured data

One way to tell Google about your image metadata is to add structured data fields. Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying the page content. If you're new to structured data, you can learn more about how structured data works.

Here's an overview of how to build, test, and release structured data.

  1. Add the required properties. Based on the format you're using, learn where to insert structured data on the page.
  2. Follow the General structured data guidelines.
  3. Validate your code using the Rich Results Test.
  4. Deploy a few pages that include your structured data and use the URL Inspection tool to test how Google sees the page. Be sure that your page is accessible to Google and not blocked by a robots.txt file, the noindex tag, or login requirements. If the page looks okay, you can ask Google to recrawl your URLs.
  5. To keep Google informed of future changes, we recommend that you submit a sitemap. You can automate this with the Search Console Sitemap API.

Examples

Single image

Here's an example of a page with a single image.

JSON-LD 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Black labrador puppy</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "contentUrl": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg",
      "license": "https://example.com/license",
      "acquireLicensePage": "https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images",
      "creditText": "Labrador PhotoLab",
      "creator": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Brixton Brownstone"
       },
      "copyrightNotice": "Clara Kent"
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <img alt="Black labrador puppy" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg">
    <p><a href="https://example.com/license">License</a></p>
    <p><a href="https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images">How to use my images</a></p>
    <p><b>Photographer</b>: Brixton Brownstone</p>
    <p><b>Copyright</b>: Clara Kent</p>
    <p><b>Credit</b>: Labrador PhotoLab</p>
  </body>
</html>

RDFa 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Black labrador puppy</title>
  </head>
  <body>
  <div vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="ImageObject">
    <img alt="Black labrador puppy" property="contentUrl" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg" /><br>
    <span property="license"> https://example.com/license</span><br>
    <span property="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
    <span rel="schema:creator">
      <span typeof="schema:Person">
        <span property="schema:name" content="Brixton Brownstone"></span>
      </span>
    </span>
    <span property="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span><br>
    <span property="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span><br>
  </div>
  </body>
</html>

Microdata 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Black labrador puppy</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
      <img alt="Black labrador puppy" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg" />
      <span itemprop="license"> https://example.com/license</span><br>
      <span itemprop="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span itemprop="creator" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemscope>
        <meta itemprop="name" content="Brixton Brownstone" />
      </span>
      <span itemprop="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span>
      <span itemprop="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>
Single image in a srcset tag

Here's an example of a page with a single image in a srcset tag.

JSON-LD 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Black labrador puppy</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "contentUrl": "https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg",
      "license": "https://example.com/license",
      "acquireLicensePage": "https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images",
      "creditText": "Labrador PhotoLab",
      "creator": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Brixton Brownstone"
       },
      "copyrightNotice": "Clara Kent"
    }
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <img srcset="https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-320w.jpg 320w,
                   https://example.com/photos/480/black-labrador-puppy-480w.jpg 480w,
                   https://example.com/photos/800/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg 800w"
           sizes="(max-width: 320px) 280px,
                  (max-width: 480px) 440px,
                  800px"
           src="https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg"
           alt="Black labrador puppy"><br>
    <p><a href="https://example.com/license">License</a></p>
    <p><a href="https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images">How to use my images</a></p>
    <p><b>Photographer</b>: Brixton Brownstone</p>
    <p><b>Copyright</b>: Clara Kent</p>
    <p><b>Credit</b>: Labrador PhotoLab</p>
  </body>
</html>

RDFa 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Black labrador puppy</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="ImageObject">
      <img property="contentUrl"
           srcset="https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-320w.jpg 320w,
                   https://example.com/photos/480/black-labrador-puppy-480w.jpg 480w,
                   https://example.com/photos/800/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg 800w"
           sizes="(max-width: 320px) 280px,
                  (max-width: 480px) 440px,
                  800px"
           src="https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg"
           alt="Black labrador puppy">
      <span property="license">https://example.com/license</span>
      <span property="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span rel="schema:creator">
        <span typeof="schema:Person">
          <span property="schema:name" content="Brixton Brownstone"></span>
        </span>
      </span>
      <span property="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span>
      <span property="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span>
   </div>
  </body>
</html>

Microdata 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Black labrador puppy</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
      <img itemprop="contentUrl"
           srcset="https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-320w.jpg 320w,
                   https://example.com/photos/480/black-labrador-puppy-480w.jpg 480w,
                   https://example.com/photos/800/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg 800w"
           sizes="(max-width: 320px) 280px,
                  (max-width: 480px) 440px,
                  800px"
           src="https://example.com/photos/320/black-labrador-puppy-800w.jpg"
           alt="Black labrador puppy">
      <span itemprop="license">https://example.com/license</span>
      <span itemprop="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span itemprop="creator" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemscope>
        <meta itemprop="name" content="Brixton Brownstone" />
      </span>
      <span itemprop="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span>
      <span itemprop="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span>
   </div>
  </body>
</html>
Multiple image on a page

Here's an example of a page with multiple images.

JSON-LD 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Photos of black labradors</title>
    <script type="application/ld+json">
    [{
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "contentUrl": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg",
      "license": "https://example.com/license",
      "acquireLicensePage": "https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images",
      "creditText": "Labrador PhotoLab",
      "creator": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Brixton Brownstone"
       },
      "copyrightNotice": "Clara Kent"
    },
   {
      "@context": "https://schema.org/",
      "@type": "ImageObject",
      "contentUrl": "https://example.com/photos/1x1/adult-black-labrador.jpg",
      "license": "https://example.com/license",
      "acquireLicensePage": "https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images",
      "creditText": "Labrador PhotoLab",
      "creator": {
        "@type": "Person",
        "name": "Brixton Brownstone"
       },
      "copyrightNotice": "Clara Kent"
    }]
    </script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Black labrador puppy</h2>
    <img alt="Black labrador puppy" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg">
    <p><a href="https://example.com/license">License</a></p>
    <p><a href="https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images">How to use my images</a></p>
    <p><b>Photographer</b>: Brixton Brownstone</p>
    <p><b>Copyright</b>: Clara Kent</p>
    <p><b>Credit</b>: Labrador PhotoLab</p>
    <h2>Adult black labrador</h2>
    <img alt="Adult black labrador" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/adult-black-labrador.jpg">
    <p><a href="https://example.com/license">License</a></p>
    <p><a href="https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images">How to use my images</a></p>
    <p><b>Photographer</b>: Brixton Brownstone</p>
    <p><b>Copyright</b>: Clara Kent</p>
    <p><b>Credit</b>: Labrador PhotoLab</p>
  </body>
</html>

RDFa 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Photos of black labradors</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="ImageObject">
      <h2 property="name">Black labrador puppy</h2>
      <img alt="Black labrador puppy" property="contentUrl" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg" /><br>
      <span property="license"> https://example.com/license</span>
      <span property="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span rel="schema:creator">
        <span typeof="schema:Person">
          <span property="schema:name" content="Brixton Brownstone"></span>
        </span>
      </span>
      <span property="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span>
      <span property="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span>
    </div>
    <br>
    <div vocab="https://schema.org/" typeof="ImageObject">
      <h2 property="name">Adult black labrador</h2>
      <img alt="Adult black labrador" property="contentUrl" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/adult-black-labrador.jpg" />
      <span property="license"> https://example.com/license</span>
      <span property="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span rel="schema:creator">
        <span typeof="schema:Person">
          <span property="schema:name" content="Brixton Brownstone"></span>
        </span>
      </span>
      <span property="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span>
      <span property="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Microdata 


<html>
  <head>
    <title>Photos of black labradors</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
      <h2 itemprop="name">Black labrador puppy</h2>
      <img alt="Black labrador puppy" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/black-labrador-puppy.jpg" />
      <span itemprop="license"> https://example.com/license</span>
      <span itemprop="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span itemprop="creator" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemscope>
        <meta itemprop="name" content="Brixton Brownstone" />
      </span>
      <span itemprop="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span><br>
      <span itemprop="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span><br>
    </div>
    <br>
      <h2 itemprop="name">Adult black labrador</h2>
      <div itemscope itemtype="https://schema.org/ImageObject">
      <img alt="Adult black labrador" itemprop="contentUrl" src="https://example.com/photos/1x1/adult-black-labrador.jpg" />
      <span itemprop="license"> https://example.com/license</span>
      <span itemprop="acquireLicensePage">https://example.com/how-to-use-my-images</span>
      <span itemprop="creator" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" itemscope>
        <meta itemprop="name" content="Brixton Brownstone" />
      </span>
      <span itemprop="copyrightNotice">Clara Kent</span>
      <span itemprop="creditText">Labrador PhotoLab</span>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Structured data type definitions

The full definition of ImageObject is provided on schema.org/ImageObject. The Google-supported properties are the following:

Required properties
contentUrl

URL

A URL to the actual image content. Google uses contentUrl to determine which image the photo metadata applies to.

Either creator or creditText or copyrightNotice or license

In addition to contentUrl, you must include one of the following properties:
Recommended properties
acquireLicensePage

URL

A URL to a page where the user can find information on how to license that image. Here are some examples:

  • A check-out page for that image where the user can select specific resolutions or usage rights
  • A general page that explains how to contact you
creator

Organization or Person

The creator of the image. This is usually the photographer, but it may be a company or organization (if appropriate).

creator.name

Text

The name of the creator.

creditText

Text

The name of the person and/or organization that is credited for the image when it's published.

license

URL

A URL to a page that describes the license governing an image's use. For example, it could be the terms and conditions that you have on your website. Where applicable, it could also be a Creative Commons License (for example, BY-NC 4.0).

If you're using structured data to specify an image, you must include the license property for your image to be eligible to be shown with the Licensable badge. We recommend that you also add the acquireLicensePage property if you have that information.

IPTC photo metadata

Alternatively, you can embed IPTC photo metadata directly inside an image. We recommend using metadata management software to manage your image metadata. The following table contains the properties that Google extracts:

Recommended properties
Copyright Notice

The copyright notice for claiming the intellectual property for this photograph. This identifies the current owner of the copyright for the photograph.

Creator

The creator of the image. This is usually the name of the photographer, but it may be the name of a company or organization (if appropriate).

Credit Line

The name of the person and/or organization that is credited for the image when it's published.

Digital Source Type

The type of digital source that was used to create the image. Google supports the following IPTC NewsCodes:

  • trainedAlgorithmicMedia: The image was created algorithmically using a model derived from sampled content.
  • compositeSynthetic: The image is a mix or composite that includes at least one synthetic element.
  • algorithmicMedia: The image was created purely by an algorithm not based on any sampled training data (for example, an image created by software using a mathematical formula).
  • compositeWithTrainedAlgorithmicMedia: The image is a composite of trained algorithmic media with some other media, such as with inpainting or outpainting operations.
Licensor URL

A URL to a page where the user can find information on how to license that image. The Licensor URL must be a property of a Licensor object, not a property of the image object. Here are some examples:

  • A check-out page for that image where the user can select specific resolutions
  • A general page that explains how to contact you
Web Statement of Rights

A URL to a page that describes the license governing an image's use, and optionally other rights information. For example, it could be the terms and conditions that you have on your website. Where applicable, it could also be a Creative Commons License (for example, BY-NC 4.0).

You must include the Web Statement of Rights field for your image to be eligible to be shown with the licensable badge. We recommend that you also add the Licensor URL field if you have that information.

How C2PA metadata can appear in Google Search results

If an image contains C2PA metadata, Google can extract those details and may show information in the "About this image" feature, such as how the image was created or if it was edited with AI tools. This metadata comes from a signer, which is usually an app, device, or service (for example, photo editing software, the camera itself, or other services that modify or create images) that meets the following conditions:

  • The app, device, or service has adopted C2PA version 2.1 or later.
  • The image's manifest must be signed by a certificate from a Certification Authority on the C2PA Trust List.

Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble implementing image metadata for Google Images, here are some resources that may help you.

Is it okay to remove image metadata?

Removing image metadata can reduce image file size, which helps web pages load faster. However, be careful, since removing metadata may be illegal in certain jurisdictions. Image metadata provide image copyright and licensing information online. Google recommends that, at the very least, you retain critical metadata related to image rights information and identification. For example, whenever possible try to keep the IPTC fields creator, credit line, and copyright notice to provide proper attribution.