For Google Discover, use a large, relevant lead image at least 1200px wide and allow large previews with max-image-preview:large in your robots meta tag. For Article rich results, list that image in your structured data in 16x9, 4x3, and 1x1 crops, each at least 50,000 pixels (width times height), and never use your logo as the lead image.
What size images does Google Discover need?
Google's Discover docs recommend large images that are:
- At least 1200px wide
- High resolution, with more than 300,000 total pixels
- In a 16x9 aspect ratio
A 1200x675 image is 16x9 and comes to 810,000 pixels, so it clears both bars. Many publishers go wider, at 1600x900 or 1920x1080, so the image stays sharp on high-density phone screens. (Screen density, or DPR, is how many physical pixels a phone uses for each CSS pixel. Our post on retina and HiDPI images explains why it matters.)
Google also says the image should be relevant, well cropped, and not text-heavy. That last one is where a lot of news sites trip up. A thumbnail that's mostly a headline in bold type looks cramped in the feed, and the feed already shows your title right below it.
Keep the file light, too. A 1920px JPEG or WebP can usually land well under a few hundred KB with sensible settings. See our guide to image compression and quality settings.
How do you allow large image previews with max-image-preview?
max-image-preview is a robots rule that caps how big an image preview Google may show for your page. It takes three values:
| Value | What Google may show | Effect on Discover |
|---|---|---|
none | No image preview | No image at all |
standard | A default-size preview | Usually a small thumbnail |
large | A larger preview, up to the width of the viewport | Eligible for the big card image |
Add it to the <head> of every article template:
<meta name="robots" content="max-image-preview:large">If you already have a robots meta tag, combine the rules with commas instead of adding a second tag:
<meta name="robots" content="index, follow, max-image-preview:large">You can send the same rule as an HTTP header, which is handy for sites where editing templates is a pain:
X-Robots-Tag: max-image-preview:largeGoogle's Discover docs say large images are enabled by this setting "or by using AMP." Most sites have moved away from AMP, so for most people the meta tag is the only route. Many SEO plugins add it by default now, but check your rendered HTML. Some themes and plugins set max-image-preview:standard or add their own robots tag that overrides yours.
What does Article structured data say about images?
The image property in Article, NewsArticle, or BlogPosting markup is how you tell Google which images represent the story. Google's guidance for it is:
- Image URLs must be crawlable and indexable.
- Images must represent the marked-up content.
- Files must be in a format Google Images supports.
- For best results, provide multiple high-resolution images with a minimum of 50K pixels when you multiply width and height.
- Provide them in these aspect ratios: 16x9, 4x3, and 1x1.
Google doesn't say which crop it uses where. The point of supplying three is that different surfaces use different shapes, and Google would rather pick your crop than make its own. The 1x1 matters more than people expect, since square thumbnails show up in several places.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "NewsArticle",
"headline": "City council approves new bike lanes",
"image": [
"https://example.com/photos/1x1/bike-lanes.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/4x3/bike-lanes.jpg",
"https://example.com/photos/16x9/bike-lanes.jpg"
],
"datePublished": "2026-09-20T08:00:00-05:00",
"author": [{ "@type": "Person", "name": "Jane Park" }]
}
</script>Here's a sizing tip. 50K pixels is a low floor. A 1x1 at 224x224 barely clears it. If you want the 16x9 crop to double as your Discover image, make it at least 1200px wide, like 1200x675. Then make the 4x3 (say 1200x900) and 1x1 (1200x1200) from the same source photo.
Why shouldn't you use your logo as the lead image?
Google says it directly in the Discover docs: avoid generic images, such as your site logo. The Article guidance says the image must represent the marked-up content. A logo represents your brand, not the story.
This usually happens by accident. A CMS falls back to the site logo when an editor forgets to set a featured image. Then that logo ends up in og:image, in the Article schema, or both. The result is a feed full of identical cards, and people scroll past them.
Your logo does have a proper home in structured data. It belongs in the publisher or Organization markup. Our post on logo structured data covers that. If you're mixing up which brand image goes where, our favicon vs. app icon vs. logo guide sorts it out.
Does og:image matter for Discover?
Yes. Google's Discover docs list schema.org markup and the og:image meta tag as ways to tell it which image to use. So og:image works as a fallback and a second signal.
The simplest setup is to use the same 16x9 image for both. That way Discover, Search, and social platforms all show the same picture.
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/photos/16x9/bike-lanes.jpg">
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200">
<meta property="og:image:height" content="675">Social platforms have their own sizing rules. Facebook and LinkedIn crop closer to 1.91:1 than 16x9, though the difference is small. Our og:image size guide covers each platform.
How do you set this up step by step?
- Pick a real, relevant photo for each article. No logos, no text-heavy graphics.
- Export it in three crops: 16x9 at 1200px wide or more, plus 4x3 and 1x1 versions.
- Put the image in the article body in an
<img>tag with good alt text. - List all three crops in the
imagearray of your Article structured data. - Set
og:imageto the 16x9 crop. - Add
max-image-preview:largeto the robots meta tag on article pages. - Make sure robots.txt doesn't block your image folder or CDN host.
- Test one article with the Rich Results Test and the URL Inspection tool in Search Console.
Step 7 is the one that bites people using a separate image CDN. If that domain's robots.txt blocks Googlebot, none of the rest matters. Our post on image SEO for Google Images goes into the crawl side in more detail.
How do you check performance in the Discover report?
Search Console has a separate Discover performance report under Performance. It shows clicks, impressions, and click-through rate (CTR) for content that appeared in Discover over the past 16 months.
Two things surprise people:
- It may not be there at all. Google only shows the report once your property reaches a minimum number of Discover impressions. No report usually means not enough Discover traffic yet, not a broken setup.
- Traffic swings a lot. Google says Discover traffic is less predictable than Search traffic. A post can spike for two days and vanish. Don't read too much into one week.
To judge whether image changes helped, compare CTR on pages before and after you added max-image-preview:large or fixed logo fallbacks. Use a range of several weeks.
Common mistakes
- Missing or overridden
max-image-preview:large. Two robots meta tags from two plugins can conflict. Google applies the more restrictive rule. - Logo fallback as the lead image. Audit articles with no featured image and fix the CMS default.
- Images under 1200px wide. Older archives often have 800px images. They can still appear, just not as the large card.
- Text-heavy graphics. Quote cards and headline graphics look poor at feed size.
- Schema image that isn't on the page. The structured data image should represent the article. Using a random stock image that isn't shown anywhere is asking for trouble.
- Blocked image URLs. The images must be crawlable and indexable, including on CDN domains.
Discover and regular search both show a small site icon beside your name, and that one comes from your favicon, not your article image. If it shows up as a gray globe, run the Google favicon checker to see what Google can actually fetch.
TL;DR
For Discover, use a relevant 16x9 lead image at least 1200px wide (over 300,000 pixels) and add max-image-preview:large to your robots meta tag. For Article rich results, list 16x9, 4x3, and 1x1 crops in your structured data, each at least 50K pixels, and set og:image to the same 16x9 image. Keep logos and text-heavy graphics out of the lead slot.