Google adds ClaimReview or Fact Check schema support for images

Google announced it now supports the ClaimReview or Fact Check schema markup for Google Images. This is in addition to Google supporting this on Google News back in 2016 and then on normal web pages. Google said “starting today, we are surfacing fact check information in Google Images globally to help people navigate these issues and make more informed judgments about what they see on the web.”

Why add face checking to images? Google wants to make sure that the images they see in Google Image Search are accurate. If the image has a fact check label on it, that is Google’s way of telling searchers the image meets Google’s criteria and is using ClaimReview schema. We’ve also seen people “doctor” images that show information that is not correct and factual. Supporting fact checking on images can help searchers learn to trust some images and not immediately trust others.

What it looks like. Google will show in the image search results a “fact check” label under the thumbnail image results. When you click on one of these results to view the image in a larger format, you’ll see a summary of the fact check that appears on the underlying web page. “These labels may appear both for fact check articles about specific images and for fact check articles that include an image in the story.,” Google added.

Here is what it looks like:

How to add the markup. Google has more documentation on this ClaimReview schema, which they label Fact Check in their developer documents. Google offers five levels of fact check including:

• 1 = “False”
• 2 = “Mostly false”
• 3 = “Half true”
• 4 = “Mostly true”
• 5 = “True”

You can learn more about face check search results by Google over here.

Ranking not impacted. Google clarified that adding fact check or ClaimReview schema does not impact your ranking in search. Google said “just as is the case in Search, adding this label in Google Images results does not affect ranking; our systems are designed to surface the most relevant, reliable information available, including from sources that provide fact checks.”

Why we care. If your images can be fact checked and you can add this markup, it might prove worthwhile to do. Searchers may begin to recognize the fact check labels and click on those results more often. At the very least, it is worth testing to see if it impacts your click-through rate from the Google search results.

Google has said it does not improve your rankings but it may improve your traffic, by increasing how many people notice your images and click on them to your web site.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.