Google's John Mueller responded to a tweet asking why Pinterest ranks so well in Google search when the Pinterest pages have little to no textual content on the pages. John Mueller from Google said "sometimes images, even with minimal textual content, can be exactly what people are looking for. Not always, and sometimes we get it wrong, but it's certainly an option."
He posted this on Twitter "I'd argue there's a lot of content on Pinterest -- even if it's not a collection of 3000 word blog posts."
I'd argue there's a lot of content on Pinterest -- even if it's not a collection of 3000 word blog posts. Sometimes images, even with minimal textual content, can be exactly what people are looking for. Not always, and sometimes we get it wrong, but it's certainly an option.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) May 12, 2020
Yep - it depends on the query, what people are searching for in Google. If Google thinks people want an image without much content, Google will show it. If Google thinks the searcher wants a short pice of textual content, then Google will show that. If Google thinks the searcher wants 15,000 words, then Google will show that.
Forum discussion at Twitter.