Google: Updating Images Can Take Months; We Don't Index Them Frequently

Jan 26, 2016 - 7:56 am 2 by

Autumn Google 1900px

We know Google discovers and displays images very quickly in their search index, but once it is indexed, Google may take a really long time to discover the update.

For example, let's say you upload green-flowers.jpg to your server and Google finds it. Then a few days later you realize you actually uploaded them as red flowers, so you repost the green flower image on the same green-flowers.jpg filename.

John Mueller from Google said it can take Google months, or maybe longer to update that image in their Google Image search index.

John wrote on Twitter, "images don't change often, so we don't reindex them frequently." When questioned how long that can take, John added, "depends, maybe on the order of months. Also, indexing isn't guaranteed, so you can't assume it'll always happen."

Here are the tweets:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 24, 2025

Mar 24, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search: No Specific Date For Independent Sites Surface Better

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Search Terms Report Gets PMax Terms

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google News

Google: Removing EU News Publishers Had No Impact On Search Ad Revenue

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Merchant Center Conversion Data Lost & Unrecoverable In February

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google

Google AI Overviews With Al Explanation & Related Images Button

Mar 24, 2025 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: Many Google AdSense Publishers Still Waiting For Their January Payments