Why it matters
Besides img elements, image sitemaps tell Google about the images on each page, which helps for images that JavaScript loads or that are otherwise hard to find.
How to meet it
Add image:image entries with image:loc under each page's url in the sitemap, or in a separate image sitemap, up to 1,000 images per page, and list only images you want indexed.
How to test it
The Sitemaps report reads the file, and the image URLs in it return 200 and are not disallowed.
How Regensbot covers it
AutomaticNeedsOne URL
Decided from one URL.
An audit reads the response, the headers, the HTML, robots.txt, the sitemaps and the structured data, and the finding shows the evidence it saw.
Sources
Google documents01
Claims in the knowledge base02
- D2-C540ConfirmedUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
- D2-C527ConsistentUsing images to your advantage and Engaging Search users with videosSaid on stage
Claim IDs refer to the Search Central Live 2026 knowledge base. The knowledge base (opens in a new tab)
- Confirmed
- Google's documentation states the same thing.
- Consistent
- Google's documentation supports it without stating it.