An image pack is a row or block of image thumbnails that Google shows within its main search results when it judges that the searcher wants to see pictures. Clicking a thumbnail usually opens the image in Google Images, rather than taking the searcher straight to the website it came from.
How the image pack works
Google adds an image pack to a results page when a query has visual intent. Searches such as “herringbone parquet flooring”, “Victorian terrace loft conversion” or “wedding cake designs” often trigger one, because the searcher wants to see options before reading anything. The pack is one of many SERP features and can appear at the top of the results, part-way down, or not at all. The layout varies by query and device, and Google changes it over time.
The images come from Google’s image index, the same one behind Google Images. Google chooses them using the image itself and the page around it: the file name, alt text, any caption, nearby text, the page’s topic and the overall quality of the site. A thumbnail in the pack links into Google Images, where the searcher sees a larger preview, the page title and a link through to the site.
Why it matters
For businesses that sell something visual, the image pack is shop-window space on the results page. A kitchen fitter in Surrey, a florist in Islington or a furniture maker in the Cotswolds can appear in the pack for searches where their text pages would struggle to reach the first page, because the contest there is about the picture as much as the page.
It also takes space from the standard results. When an image pack sits above the first organic listing, everything else moves down the screen, and some searchers find what they wanted in the thumbnails without clicking any website. That adds to zero-click searches and is worth remembering when a page’s click-through rate looks low for its position.
Traffic from the pack is indirect. It takes two clicks to reach your site, so treat it as visibility that builds familiarity, and measure it alongside image search clicks rather than expecting each thumbnail to send visits.
Common mistakes
- Using stock photos. The same image appears on many sites, so Google has little reason to choose yours, and searchers see nothing distinctive.
- Leaving file names as IMG_4821.jpg and alt text empty, which gives Google little to connect the image to the search.
- Showing key images only as CSS backgrounds or inside script-built sliders, which Google may not index as images.
- Blocking the image folder in robots.txt, which stops Google fetching the images at all.
- Chasing pack places for searches with no buying intent, when the commercial searches are where it pays.
How to act on it
Search your main products and services in a private browser window and note which searches show an image pack. Those are your targets. For each, make sure the relevant page carries original photographs of your own products or work, placed with standard image HTML near the text that describes them, with descriptive file names and alt text that says what the picture shows.
The detail of this is image SEO, and it fits naturally within on-page SEO for the pages concerned. Track progress with a rank tracker that records SERP features. Search Console has no separate filter for the image pack; its Image search type covers Google Images, where a click on a pack thumbnail lands, so treat that as a companion measure rather than a report on the pack itself.