CSS Background Images Aren’t Indexed

In a recent Search Off the Record podcast, Google’s Search Relations team cautioned developers against using CSS for all website images.

While CSS background images can enhance visual design, they’re invisible to Google Image Search. This could lead to missed opportunities in image indexing and search visibility.

Here’s what Google’s Search Advocates advise.

The CSS Image Problem

During the episode, John Mueller shared a recurring issue:

“I had someone ping me I think last week or a week before on social media: “It looks like my developer…