Google's John Mueller was asked if it is bad to watermark your images in terms of SEO. Would Google not rank watermarked images as highly in Google Image search as it would non-watermarked images.
John responded on Twitter saying "I don't know if excessively watermarked would be considered that high quality, but in general, for Google Images, images are images. Our best practices for images are at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/114016?hl=en if you're curious."
I mean, if I search for some images in Google search, Google does show me watermarked options to look at and eventually click through to buy if I want it:
John later added "I see lots of images with watermarks in Google Images. I'd primarily consider what you're trying to achieve with the images; how would users search visually for your content? or is the image the content? I wouldn't blindly try to force images to the index for sake of indexing."
I don't know if excessively watermarked would be considered that high quality, but in general, for Google Images, images are images. Our best practices for images are at https://t.co/SUCRJBJfqs if you're curious.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 11, 2019
I see lots of images with watermarks in Google Images. I'd primarily consider what you're trying to achieve with the images; how would users search visually for your content? or is the image the content? I wouldn't blindly try to force images to the index for sake of indexing.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) October 11, 2019
I'd suspect a high quality image, without watermarks all over it, would rank better than one without watermarks all over it. Simply because it is easier for Google to understand the image without the watermarks on them than one with watermarks all over them.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Note: This story was pre-written before the Sukkot holiday. I am currently offline for the holiday and unable to respond to comments on this site, social, media or other platforms.
