Google updates image SEO best practices and Google Discover docs

Google has made a couple of tweaks to two of its SEO-related help documents. The changes include specifying that the title and link elements are most important for the RSS feed follow in Google Discover and that Google parses img elements even within other elements, such as the picture element.

Google Discover RSS Feed follow

Google added a new line to the Get On Discover documentation under the feed guidelines for the Follow feature in Google Discover. Google wrote:

“The most important content for the Follow feature is your feed <title> element and your per item <link> elements. Make sure your feed includes these elements.”

Clearly, if you care about performing well in the follow feature on Chrome, you should include the  <title> element and <link> elements in your RSS feed.

Google Image SEO best practices update

Google also updated the image SEO best practices document to clarify that Google parses <img> elements even when they’re enclosed in other elements (such as <picture> elements) when indexing images.

The document used to say “Google parses the HTML of your pages to index images, but doesn’t index CSS images.” It now reads:

“Using semantic HTML markup helps crawlers find and process images. Google parses the HTML <img> elements (even when they’re enclosed in other elements such as <picture> elements) in your pages to index images, but doesn’t index CSS images.”

Why we care

If you are looking to leverage more when it comes to either the Follow feature in Google Chrome powered by Google Discover, or you are looking to perform better with your image SEO, make sure to read the updated documentation that Google has provided. More importantly, if you make any changes to your site, make sure to test to see if there is a positive or negative impact to your search performance.