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I display hero images across the top of my blog pages. However, I use CSS images rendering through div tags and I read that google doesn't typically index those. So the images aren't included as thumbnails in SERPs, see my page which appears first in the image below.

Is there a way to get Google to index CSS images enclosed in div tags?

Any tips to improve the probability that my hero images appear as thumbnails in the SERP?

enter image description here

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  • It isn't a big deal. Those images only appear in mobile results and it takes about 10 seconds for them to load on my phone (even with fast wifi). I've almost always clicked on something before I see them.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 18:38

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Some Tips if you are trying to control what appears in the local mobile search results

For sure:

  • Make the image the first image in the main content area and make it central to the page content
  • Make sure that the page is topically relevant to your targeted search query with good architecture including title Tags & H1 tags.

Some possibilities that might have an impact:

  • I am not sure if Google is using machine learning to understand the image content but they might be so it doesn’t hurt from a user and long term Googly perspective to make the image contextually appropriate to the target phrases of the page.
  • While alt tags and file titles do not seem to drive these results, they couldn’t hurt and might allow Google to show different images to show for different search results. That is TBD.

Some style thoughts:

  • Either center weight the content of the image so that the important things exist in the middle of the image or make the image square. Otherwise, Google will crop the image with unintended consequences.

  • Make sure that the image scales down to small sizes well. Google will display the image at slightly more than 100 pixels wide. If the image is too complicated or shot too far away it will not scale down well.

  • Make sure that the image is one that you really want to highlight. When I saw this image of the empty desk for the lawyer, it made me laugh and my first thought was: “If he is not at his desk working, he might not be willing to work for me”.

You can learn more from the source

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