Why does Google Images show encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com URL instead of my original image URL?

Poojari793599 Level 1

0

July 29, 2025, 11:23 pm

1

Why does Google Images show encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com URL instead of my original image URL?

Hi,
I noticed that in Google Image Search, my image appears with a URL like https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images, which I understand is a cached thumbnail hosted by Google. However, I’ve seen that some images in the search results appear with their original source URLs instead.

My image is publicly accessible, properly embedded using standard HTML (<img src="">), and I’ve added relevant meta tags like og:image. It’s also not blocked in robots.txt, and the page has already been indexed by Google.

My questions are:

Under what conditions does Google choose to display the original image URL instead of the cached thumbnail (encrypted-tbn0)?

Is there a way to encourage Google to link directly to the original image in the search results grid or preview?

Are there specific SEO best practices or structured data requirements that influence this behavior?

Any insights or documentation links would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

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Asmodeus

Asmodeus

Why do you want Google to hotlink the image from your own server instead of using the cache??

0 13 days ago

1970-01-01T00:00:00+0000

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