# AI-generated images on a product site

A generated image is fine as decoration and useless as evidence. Google reads the alt text, the file name and the text around an image, not its origin, so nothing about search stops you using one. What stops you is the reader: on a product site, the images that earn trust are the ones showing your product actually doing the thing.

Updated 2026-09-15 · Source: https://porteur.ai/guides/ai-images-and-seo

## Where a generated image is fine

Use one where a stock photo would have gone, and where nobody is being asked to believe anything about your product.

- A header image on a guide, as decoration above the text.
- An abstract illustration for a concept page, where the alternative is a photograph of a person at a laptop.
- A social card background, where the image exists to make a link look deliberate in a feed.
- A placeholder in a design while the real asset is being made, as long as it does not ship.
- An icon or a texture, where the image carries no claim at all.

None of these help a page rank, and none hurt it. They are a design decision with a weight cost, and that is the whole story for search.

## Where only a real screenshot works

On a product site, most images are evidence. A generated one in these places is not a style choice; it is a claim that is not true.

| Image | Why generated does not work |
| --- | --- |
| The product screenshot on the home page | The buyer is deciding whether this is real software. An invented interface is found out in the first minute of a trial |
| A step in a how-to guide | The reader is following along. A screen that does not match what they see is worse than no image |
| A chart of your own data | The numbers are the point. Generated charts have invented numbers |
| A photograph of your team | A generated portrait on an About page is the fastest way to lose a visitor who was checking whether you exist |
| A customer's dashboard in a case study | It is their data, it is their permission, and it cannot be approximated |

> The rule that covers every row: if the image is there to prove something, take it. If it is there to fill a space, generate it or drop it.

## What Google actually reads about an image

Nothing in the ranking of a page depends on how an image was made. What is read is the same set of things as always.

- The alt attribute, which is what a screen reader announces and what is used when the image is a link.
- The file name: pricing-chart.png says more than IMG_1234.png.
- The caption and the text around the image, which say what it shows.
- The image property in your structured data on the thing the page is about.
- The technical facts: format, dimensions, whether width and height are set, whether it is lazy loaded.

Google Images sends real traffic to some sites and almost none to others. Product photos, diagrams and step-by-step shots do well; stock-looking art rarely does, and generated art is stock-looking art with a different origin.

## Alt text for a generated image

Describe what the image shows, for someone who cannot see it. That is the job, and it does not change because a model drew it.

- Good: alt="Illustration of two servers exchanging a file". It tells a screen reader user what is on the screen.
- Bad: alt="AI generated image, invoicing software, best invoicing tool 2026". Keyword stuffing in alt text is an old trick that helps nobody.
- Also bad: alt="image", alt="illustration", alt="" on an image that carries meaning.
- Correct for pure decoration: an empty alt, so assistive technology skips it.

You do not have to write “AI generated” in the alt text. Alt is for what the image shows. If the origin matters to the reader, say it in the caption, where a person will actually see it.

## Provenance metadata: what it records and what survives

Two standards exist for recording how an image was made. IPTC photo metadata carries a field for the digital source type, which can say that an image was generated. C2PA content credentials attach a signed record of how a file was created and edited.

As of 2026 the picture is the same for both: the metadata is written by the tool that generated the image, and it is read where the platform supports it. Two practical consequences follow, and they are what actually matter to you.

- Most image pipelines strip metadata. Resizing, converting to WebP or AVIF and passing through a CDN commonly removes everything but the pixels. If you intend the provenance to survive, check your own output file.
- Nothing about your ranking depends on it. There is no policy requiring the label and no signal from having it.

So treat provenance as an honesty setting rather than an SEO one: keep it where your tooling preserves it, and do not build a process around it.

## The cost you will actually feel: page weight

Generated images arrive large, often as a PNG with more pixels than any layout needs. Dropped into a page unprocessed, one of them can become the largest element on the screen and the thing that decides your Largest Contentful Paint.

1. **Convert and compress** AVIF or WebP, compressed until artefacts show, then one step back. A decorative illustration does not need a lossless format.
2. **Export the widths you serve** Use srcset and sizes so a phone downloads a phone-sized file, not a 3000 pixel wide one.
3. **Set width and height** Every image, every time, so the layout does not shift while it loads. Cumulative Layout Shift should stay under 0.1.
4. **Lazy load below the fold, never above it** The hero image is your Largest Contentful Paint candidate. Give it priority and keep it off the lazy list.
5. **Ask whether it earns its bytes** A decorative header image that costs 300 kilobytes on a phone is a worse trade than no image. Aim for Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds.

## The rule for a product site

Generated images where a stock photo would have gone. Real screenshots everywhere the reader is being asked to believe something. Alt text that describes, file names that describe, and every image compressed and sized.

The images that earn links and get quoted are almost never illustrations. They are the labelled diagram of how the thing works, the chart of your own numbers, and the screenshot with the arrow pointing at the setting people cannot find.

## Questions

### Does Google penalise AI-generated images?

No. Google's position on content is that it rewards quality however it is produced, and nothing in its guidance treats a generated image as a violation. What is judged is the page: whether it helps the person who searched.

### Do I have to label AI-generated images?

No policy requires it for search. Provenance metadata standards exist, IPTC's digital source type and C2PA content credentials, and the tools that generate images may write them, but most resizing and conversion pipelines strip metadata on the way to your page.

### Should alt text say the image was generated?

No. Alt text describes what the image shows, for someone who cannot see it. If the origin matters to the reader, put it in the caption where a person will read it.

### Are generated images better or worse than stock photos?

For search, neither. For the reader, both lose to a real screenshot or a labelled diagram on a product site, because those carry information and the other two carry mood.

### Can generated images rank in Google Images?

They can be indexed like any image, but visual queries in a product category are usually answered by real product photos, diagrams and step-by-step shots. Stock-looking art rarely earns that traffic, whatever produced it.

## Read next

- [Image SEO](https://porteur.ai/glossary/image-seo): A checklist for SEO on images: names, alt text, size, format, speed, and how to see if Google Images sends you traffic.
- [Alt text](https://porteur.ai/glossary/alt-text): Alt text is the image alt attribute. Write what the image shows, keep it brief, use empty alt for decoration, and avoid stuffing keywords.
- [Image optimisation for page speed: the hero image and everything below it](https://porteur.ai/guides/image-optimisation-for-page-speed): Fix the hero image first for LCP, then lazy-load the rest. Choose AVIF or WebP, set srcset and sizes, and add width and height to stop shift.
- [AI-written content and Google: the policy, in Google’s words](https://porteur.ai/guides/ai-content-and-google): Google does not penalise AI writing as such. It acts on pages made at scale with nothing of their own. Here is the policy and where the line sits.
- [Trust signals on a product site: what a stranger checks before paying](https://porteur.ai/guides/trust-signals-on-a-product-site): What a stranger checks in the first minute, the pages that answer each doubt, how to show proof without noise, and a checklist you can ship today.
- [Largest Contentful Paint: what slows it and what fixes it](https://porteur.ai/guides/largest-contentful-paint): See what usually counts as LCP, what makes it slow, how to fix it in order, and how to read it in Lighthouse and field data.
- [Is SEO dead? What changes with AI answers, and what does not](https://porteur.ai/guides/ai-and-the-future-of-seo): Assistants changed where the click happens, not how pages are found. What actually moved, what did not, and the five things to do differently.

Paste your URL and the free check reads your pages on a phone in about thirty seconds: what the largest element is, what it weighs, and which images are costing you the load. Free check: https://porteur.ai/