Mastering Image SEO: Google’s New Guidelines on Consistent Image URLs for Better Crawling and Indexing

When it comes to optimising your website’s SEO, most of the focus is often on text-based content. However, one aspect that is often overlooked but has a significant impact on SEO performance is image SEO. Images, while visually appealing, also need to be optimised in the right way to ensure they contribute positively to your site’s search engine rankings.

In May 2025, Google updated its image SEO best practices, providing fresh insights that all website owners and digital marketers need to consider. One of the most significant changes in this update revolves around using consistent URLs for images across your website. But what does this really mean, and how can it affect your site’s visibility? Let’s dive deeper into Google’s updated guidelines on image SEO and why using consistent URLs for images is a game-changer.

Why Does Google Care About Image URLs?

Google, the world’s most popular search engine, uses crawlers to scan and index websites. Crawlers are essentially bots that explore and analyse the content of your site to understand what your pages are about. This allows Google to serve relevant results when users search for specific keywords.

However, Google doesn’t have infinite resources, and it needs to make the most of its crawl budget. Crawl budget refers to the number of pages Google’s crawlers are allowed to visit on your site within a given timeframe. When your site is large, this budget becomes limited, meaning that every page and image needs to be crawled efficiently for the best results.

The issue arises when an image on your website appears across multiple pages but has different URLs on each page. This scenario can waste your crawl budget because Google’s crawlers will spend additional time downloading the same image from different URLs instead of indexing more pages or valuable content. Essentially, Google may crawl the same image multiple times, which is unnecessary and resource-draining.

The Impact of Using Different URLs for the Same Image

Let’s imagine you have an image of a product on your e-commerce website, and this image appears on various product category pages, blog posts, and landing pages. If each page references the image with a different URL, Google’s crawlers might treat these images as separate resources. This leads to:

• Wasted crawl budget: Google will re-crawl the same image several times.
• Slower indexing: The crawlers may run out of time before they index other important pages on your site.
• Potential SEO penalties: When Google sees duplicate resources across multiple URLs, it may reduce the efficiency of its crawlers, indirectly impacting your rankings.

In essence, if you don’t optimise how images are referenced across your site, Google might spend precious time re-crawling the same images, leaving less time to index your valuable content or pages that need attention.

Google’s New Best Practices: The Power of Consistent URLs

To address this issue, Google has recommended that websites use the same URL when referencing the same image on different pages across your website. This simple step can make a huge difference in how efficiently Google crawls and indexes your site.

By using a consistent URL for each image, you essentially tell Google to:

• Cache and reuse the image instead of downloading it multiple times.
• Save crawl budget for indexing more pages, rather than repeatedly accessing the same image.
• Improve your site’s overall performance in terms of SEO by ensuring that your resources are being used effectively.

This update is especially beneficial for those who manage large websites with a wide variety of images. From e-commerce sites to news websites and blogs, this change allows you to make the most out of your crawl budget and ensures that Google can focus on what truly matters: your valuable content.

How to Implement Consistent Image URLs on Your Website

If your website has been relying on different URLs for the same image across various pages, it’s time to take action. Implementing Google’s updated image SEO best practice of consistent URLs may seem like a big task, but in reality, it’s simple to follow and can yield significant benefits.

Here are some actionable steps you can take to implement this strategy:

Audit Your Current Image URLs

Before making any changes, it’s important to understand how images are currently referenced across your website. Conduct an audit to identify any instances where the same image is being referenced with different URLs. This will give you a clear picture of what needs to be fixed.

Create a Standard Image URL Structure

Once you know where the inconsistencies are, the next step is to create a standard structure for all your image URLs. A good image URL should be:

• Descriptive: Include keywords that describe the image, which is also good for SEO.
• Short and clean: Avoid unnecessary parameters or special characters.
• Consistent across the site: Use the same naming conventions and folder structure for all images.

For example, if you have a product image for a laptop, the URL might look something like:

https://www.yoursite.com/images/laptop.jpg

Rather than using multiple URLs like laptop-page1.jpg, laptop-page2.jpg, etc., ensure that the image has a single, consistent URL that you reference on all the pages that feature this image.

Update Your Website Templates

To ensure the consistency of image URLs, you may need to update your website templates. This is especially relevant if you’re using content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, Shopify, or Drupal. Modify your image referencing structure so that every time an image is used on a page, it automatically uses the standard URL you’ve set up.

Consider Using a Centralised Image Management System

For websites with a large number of images, implementing a centralised image management system can help you keep track of all your images. Systems like Cloudinary, ImageKit, or Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can help you optimise and manage your images, ensuring that they are properly linked and indexed across your site with consistent URLs.

Monitor Crawl Stats in Google Search Console

Once the changes have been implemented, it’s essential to monitor how Google is interacting with your site. Google Search Console provides valuable insights into how your site is being crawled and indexed. Regularly check the crawl stats to see if there are any improvements in how your images are being crawled and how many pages are being indexed.

Benefits of Consistent Image URLs for Your Website

Implementing consistent image URLs can provide a wide range of benefits for your site’s SEO, including:

1. Improved Crawl Efficiency: Google’s crawlers can focus on indexing more pages instead of re-crawling the same images multiple times.
2. Better Use of Crawl Budget: With a limited crawl budget, optimising how images are indexed ensures more of your valuable content gets indexed.
3. Reduced Duplicate Content Issues: By using the same image URL across multiple pages, you reduce the risk of duplicate content, which could otherwise harm your site’s SEO.
4. Enhanced Website Performance: Faster crawling and indexing can result in quicker updates to your content, which may help improve search rankings.
5. Optimised User Experience: When Google crawls efficiently, users can experience quicker load times and better performance on your site, which is a key ranking factor.

Final Thoughts

Google’s latest update to image SEO best practices may seem like a small change, but it has the potential to make a significant difference to your site’s search engine visibility. By using consistent image URLs across your website, you can optimise your site’s crawl budget, improve SEO efficiency, and ensure that Google indexes your valuable content.

Whether you’re running an e-commerce website, a news portal, or a blog, following this simple yet powerful guideline can give your site a better chance of ranking higher in search results.

So, take a moment to audit your website’s image URLs and implement this best practice — it’s a step that will pay off in the long run.