Leveraging Images for Google's 'Visually Intuitive' SERPs

With Google's efforts to make SERPs visually browsable and intuitive, larger image blocks will become more prominent in SERP. You can leverage this by adding the max-image-preview:large meta tag.

SME Details

At Search On 2021, Google announced a push to make SERPs more visually browsable and intuitive. This means bigger image blocks displayed in the results for some queries.

The boon of good image assets isn't limited to SERP.

Google Lens will enable shoppers to look for a product using a photo on their device or found on a website-- essentially a reverse image search with a solid use case for image optimization.

Recently Google-published case study about Google Discover showing that sites
using the max-image-preview:large meta tag could see an increase click-thru
rate by 79% and an increase in total clicks by up to 333%.

These larger images show up in Discover with image tiles that are far more tempting to click.
how large images change user experience

Google has recommended using the max-image-preview:large for news article images in their documentation for some time - but this new push shows the potential for an increase in traffic.

documentation on potential traffic increase

Documentation for the max-image-preview:large tag explains its usage further, stating:

[The tag] applies to all forms of search results (such as Google web search, Google Images, Discover, Assistant).
Robots Meta Tags Specifications | Google Search Central

The tag works to set the maximum size of an image preview for this page in a search results. Google Discover provides a caveat that image results on Discover require large images at least 1200 px wide and the max-image-preview:large tag.

User Story

As an image optimized site, I want to add the max-image-preview:large tag to the head of product and browse pages in order to leverage the larger image blocks in SERP.

Code snippet

<meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:large">

Acceptance Criteria

  • Confirm that the in-scope page templates use images of at least 1200 px wide.

  • The code snippet appears in the head.

  • Avoid site logo as your image.

Resources

Testing Strategy

  1. Open Chrome developer tools to the Elements tab

  2. Enter in URL

  3. Search the Elements tab for 'max-image-preview:large'

  4. If tag appears in the <head>
    THEN pass
    ELSE fail Testing for max-image-preview:large

Published on 1/2/2026 by Jamie Indigo