Google search preview shows unrelated thumbnail in search suggestions

Question

Does anyone know where Google retrieves these preview/thumbnail images from in search suggestions? As shown below with the example of Apple.

Is there a hierarchy of locations that Google search to populate this image?

With my companies site I'm finding that Google is displaying a completely unrelated image. The image in question is not on my server. Nor are there any issues with our server security.

The image does not even appear in Google Image Search.

I have the my favicon, social image and structure data set up.

I do have image hotlinking disabled. But recent images do appear in Google Image Search.

Thanks

Answer 1

It seems that google picks up images from user reviews. A user tagged my businesses location google maps with their photos.

Answer 2

There are many factors that Google uses to predict user queries with logos and images. All related elements are the same as SEO. For example,

• Website structure
• Related to the search query, etc.

However, it also depends on the popularity of the brand.

This is how Google describes your question in their blog:

In the Google app, you may also notice that some of the predictions have little logos or images next to them. That’s a sign that we have special Knowledge Graph information about that topic, structured information that’s often especially useful to mobile searchers.